Former Indian cricketers said on Saturday that the spat between coach Greg Chappell and captain Sourav Ganguly is a "very serious matter" which needed to be sorted out immediately for the sake of Indian cricket.
While the cricketers restrained from making a direct comment on the charges levelled against Ganguly, most of them agreed that that a reconciliation between the two looked impossible.
| |||||||||||
Vengsarkar, also the chairman of BCCI's Talent Resource Development wing, said he also wanted the Board to find out why and by whom a confidential e-mail had been leaked to the media as this development was likely to undermine Chappell's faith in confidentiality that is followed by Indian Board officials."
"I feel that any chances of Chappell and Ganguly to work together in the future seems impossible as the former has made it clear he does not want to work with Ganguly. These things can't be sorted out even by sitting across the table and it's not going to help Indian cricket at all," Vengsarkar said in Mumbai.
"This rift seems to be irreconcilable, similar to an estranged couple who cannot stay in the same house. For the sake of Indian cricket this matter needs to be sorted out at the earliest."
"But I am certain we have got an excellent coach. We won't get another like him and it's upto the Board to take the best out of him," Vengsarkar said.
"Equally serious is the matter of the leak of the confidential report sent by Chappell though I also feel he [Ganguly] could have waited a bit more and aired his views at the Review Committee meeting of the Board [convened in Mumbai on September 27].
"But it's very important that the BCCI gets down to the bottom and find out about the leak. He may be reluctant to complain about any player in the future as he will think one hundred times before saying anything because of lack of confidentiality," the former middle order batting mainstay said.
Another former captain and one of the pillars of the middle order in the 1960s, Chandu Borde, wondered whether what he read in the papers could be believed.
However, the former chairman of the national selection committee said if all that was true, then the matter is very serious and the BCCI needed to go deep into it at the earliest.
"The matter looks very serious and the BCCI needs to look into the issue at the earliest as the issues raised by Chappell may spell an end to Ganguly's career itself," Borde said from Pune.
"There's another thing I want to highlight, knowing the nature of the Australians. They play very hard and they have no attachment to anybody, however high or big he may be.
"They believe in performance, fitness and tough mental approach to the game. Even [former Australian skipper] Steve Waugh was not spared. They send you out to play in second eleven and perform before coming back to the top team", Borde said.
"I feel the Australians have attained the pinnacle of world cricket because of this uncompromising approach to the game.
"I don't think Chappell has done any wrong. He's been given a brief by the Indian Board [to take Indian cricket to the top) and he's working as per those requirements. He was himself a great player for Australia.
"He exhibits the typical Chappell family approach to the game and to the church chapels. The chapels have certain fixed norms and you cannot go against them. The Aussies are not bothered about reputations," Borde explained.
Former coach of the Indian team Madan Lal said he was not in a position to comment specifically on the charges against Ganguly although he had been the coach of the team when the Bengal player started his career.
"All I will say is when a player begins his career, he mostly does what he is told to do, but the moment he becomes a big player, or captain, there is a sea change in his attitude.
Another former Indian coach Anshuman Gaekwad said a person had to be intimately involved with the team to know whether Ganguly creates differences among team members.
"But if that was indeed the case, the team would not have done well under him... If he does not command respect within the team, he would not have achieved the results he has", he said.
More from rediff