Sanjay Manjrekar reveals an incident when Greg Chappell gave VVS Laxman a piece of his mind

Sourav Ganguly is considered as one of the best captains of the Indian cricket team as he instilled the fighting spirit in the Men in Blue and under his leadership, the team learned how to win matches both at home and overseas. However, the second part of Ganguly’s captaincy was marred with controversies as there were reports regarding bad blood between Ganguly and then Indian coach Greg Chappell. 

Chappell coached the Indian team from 2005 to 2007 and during his tenure, there were a lot of rifts in the Indian team and many senior players were unhappy with the working style of Chappell. Recently, former Indian cricketer and renowned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar narrated an incident where Greg issued a serious warning to the batting great VVS Laxman.

Recalling an episode from India’s mid-2000s tour of Zimbabwe, Manjrekar revealed that VVS walked out of the field for a few minutes in between the Test match and that didn’t go well with the Australian veteran. The renowned commentator reckoned that the substitute who was present on the field as a replacement for VVS dropped a catch and it angered the head coach so much that he told Laxman to never leave the field in the middle unless there is a life-threatening emergency.

Chappell ended up giving a senior player like Laxman a piece of his mind: Manjrekar

Manjrekar revealed as quoted by Sportskeeda, “While a Test match was underway in Harare in Zimbabwe, Greg Chappell went for a practice session with a few substitute players. After 30-40 minutes, he was heading back to the dressing room. On the way, he saw a substitute fielder in the match dropping a catch in the slips. So the coach started wondering, why is there is a substitute on the field, and which regular has come out.”

“When he went inside, Greg Chappell saw that VVS Laxman was drinking coffee. So he got a bit angry and asked VVS, why he wasn’t on the field. Laxman replied that he had got injured, so came out of the field to apply some ice on the injured area.

“An enraged Greg Chappell rebuked Laxman and asked, was it life-threatening? Laxman was absolutely shocked thinking, what is he asking? The coach further ordered him that if it is not life-threatening, never come off the field next time. Of course, it didn’t help that the substitute dropped a catch, and Greg Chappell ended up giving a senior player like Laxman a piece of his mind,” Manjrekar added.

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