In a candid disclosure, India's coach Greg Chappell has said he owed his current job to Sourav Ganguly whom he had advised to step down as skipper with the intention of saving his career.
Giving his version of the infamous spat with the former Indian captain, Chappell said his advice was given in good faith but the entire issue was blown out of proportion by the media.
"Much has been written and said, a lot of it misleading, but in essence I told Sourav that if he wanted to save his career he should consider giving up the captaincy," Chappell was quoted as saying in 'The Guardian'.
"He was just hanging in there. Modest innings were draining him. He had no energy to give to the team, which was helping neither him nor us. It was in his own interest to give himself mind space to work on his batting so that it could be resurrected. He was not prepared to do that.
"What I didn't realise at that stage was how utterly important to his life and finances being captain was," he said.
Chappell said the fact that he had helped Ganguly with his batting might have prompted him to think that he would have his way with the Australian.
"I helped him with his batting then, so maybe he thought I would be his mate and support him now. Certainly there is no way I would have got the job here without his influence," Chappell said.
"I'm sure he thought he would be able to run me as he did John (Wright) in the latter part of his time as coach. But we clashed because his needs as a struggling player and captain and those of the team were different," he said.
The 57-year-old Aussie said he had taken upon himself to resurrect the fortunes of the Indian team and not bother much about the Ganguly controversy.
"The controversy will carry on but I have learned if I can't be totally impervious to it then it is beyond my control.
"I have to let it wash by and say 'people have their reasons for saying what they do and I can't be distracted by that' and do what I believe in.
"At the end of my time, whenever that might be, the team and therefore I will be judged ultimately on the results we achieve, not whether I have been able to convince this or that member of the media that what we are doing is in the best interests of Indian cricket," he said.
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