'Everyone was involved in the scheme to drop me' - Sourav Gangly recalls his sacking as captain and player in 2005

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly was involved in controversies when Greg Chappell was the head coach of the team. He was unceremoniously sacked first as captain and then as player. There was a lot of unrest in the team then and Ganguly himself has termed that him getting dropped from the team back in 2005 as the biggest setback of his career.

It was under his captaincy that team India started winning and competing overseas. India had also qualified for the final of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. But things changed drastically when Chappell became the coach and he sent out an email to the BCCI against Sourav Ganguly which allegedly got leaked. For the same reason, the current BCCI President feels that Chappell started it but he got the system’s backing for him to be dropped.

He also cited that a cricket team is like a family and the differences in it should and can be solved without going in public. Ganguly also questioned the way the mail was leaked. “I don’t want to blame Greg Chappell alone. There is no doubt about the fact that he was the one who started it. He suddenly sends an email against me to the board which gets leaked too. Does something like this happen? A cricket team is like a family.

“There can differences of opinion, misunderstandings in the family but that should be sorted out with dialogue. You are the coach, if you believed that I should play in a certain manner then come and tell me. When I returned as a player he had specified the same things then why not earlier?

“The others are not innocent either. A foreign coach who doesn’t have any say in the selection cannot drop an Indian captain. I had understood that this is not possible without the support of the entire system. Everyone was involved in the scheme to drop me. But I didn’t crumble under pressure. I didn’t lose confidence in me,” he said while speaking to Bengali newspaper Sangbad Pratidin.

I dreamt of winning the 2007 World Cup, says Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly also went on to say that the treatment meted out to him while being dropped from the team could’ve been avoided. He also pointed out that the team had just returned after winning in Zimbabwe when he was sacked as captain and then dropped.

“That was the biggest setback of my career. It was an absolute injustice. I know you can’t get justice all the time but even then that treatment could have been avoided. I was the captain of the team which had just won in Zimbabwe and I get sacked after returning home?

“I dreamt of winning the 2007 World Cup for India. We had lost in the final the previous time. I had reasons to dream too. The team had played so well under me for the last five years whether it was home or away. Then you suddenly drop me? First, you say I’m not in the ODI side, then you drop me from the Test team too,” the 48-year-old added.