Losing the India captaincy came like a bolt from the blue, reveals Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly, without a shadow of a doubt, was one of the leading captains of his generation.  The turn of the century saw Ganguly at his prime when he was bestowed with captaincy reigns. However, he suffered a slump in 2005 and then a spat with then coach Greg Chappell saw things go downhill paving his exit from the Indian team as he lost his captaincy.

The infamous fallout between erstwhile Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly and former India coach Greg Chappell is no secret to Indian cricket fans. He bagged the India coach’s job on the recommendation of Ganguly as the latter had helped him improve his batting in Australia during the 2003-04 tour. However, the ex-India skipper admits it was the ‘biggest mistake of his career’ as Chappell went on to become the prime reason for left-hander’s ouster from the national team. The ugly spat saw the ‘Prince of Kolkata’ forced out of the team and somewhat initiated a premature decline in his career.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with TOI, Ganguly revealed, “Losing the (India) captaincy (in 2005) came like a bolt from the blue. You are hurt but you can’t show it because you have to put that behind you and make a comeback. That was a huge learning experience because, for nearly a decade, things had only gone up for me. It made me tougher.”

The 45-year-old further added, “Hiring him was the biggest mistake of my career. I had known a different person from a stint as my batting coach in Australia. I don’t know what led to our relationship breaking down. After the 2007 World Cup, I haven’t interacted with him,”

Chappell committed numerous shenanigans to see Ganguly out

The problems initially started with a side game in Zimbabwe against Zimbabwe A team when the skipper was hurting from a tennis elbow and Chappell insisted that he goes out and bat. The 45-year-old even highlighted an incident where Chappell literally shouted at him one day as he was dosing off and termed his “lazy” that was leading to India’s suffering.