former Australia Cricketer Greg Chappell's tenure as India's head coach has always been surrounded by controversy. Chappell was also heavily criticized for India's early exit from the 2007 ODI World Cup.
Former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa He spent the few years of the initial phase of his career with the Indian team under Greg Chappell as the head coach. After working with him, Uthappa got a fair amount of insights into the things that went wrong during his training.
Uthappa accused Chappell of leaking certain information from the dressing room and managing an agenda. Although Uthappa feels Chappell was good with young players, he described him as a coach who never respected Indian culture.
“Greg Chappelle was running an agenda” – Robin Uthappa
During a discussion on Lallantop, Robin Uthappa was asked about Greg Chappell's tenure as India's head coach which led to a decline in cricket in India. Uthappa claimed that the team environment under Chappell was the worst.
Chappell was accused of running an agenda and coaching with an Australian mentality that did not quite work in India. According to Uthappa, Chappell never respected Indian culture and had a bad habit of leaking information when things were not going well for him.
“Our team ka mahaul bahut kharab tha (the environment of that team was very bad). Greg Chappell was running a certain agenda. He was coaching with an Australian mentality, saying: 'This is the way we do things in Australia.'” Uthappa said. “I don't think he respected “Indian culture absolutely, he came and tried to bring Australian culture.”
“He also had a bad habit of leaking information when things didn't go according to his plans. It didn't go down well with the players. He leaked dressing room information,” he added.
“Greg Chappelle has been very good to me” – Robin Uthappa
While Greg Chappell did not have a good relationship with senior players, Robin Uthappa claimed to have been good to him as a youngster. He spoke about his mentality when he was selected to play international cricket for India.
“When I was young, Greg Chappell was very good to me. I had just joined the team. I was young, and he was used to supporting youngsters. When he was 20, the dream was to play for India, win for India, hopefully win the World Cup again.” One for India,” Uthappa said.
He added: “When you get the opportunity to play for the country's national team, you feel like you are the leader. You don't need anything else. I will give everything for my team. I played with this mentality.”
Uthappa also revealed that during Chappell's era, the concept of strength training was introduced which was not good for the top players as they were not used to it. Ultimately, Chappell's Australian modus operandi affected India's overall performance.
One of India's darkest days in cricket history
Under Greg Chappell, India were eliminated in the group stage of the 2007 ODI World Cup held in the West Indies. India suffered horrific defeat to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the group stage and were eliminated.
The team had no. Of the top players with Rahul Dravid Like a captain. Chappelle was credited with changing the team's batting order and getting Sachin Tendulkar To bat in the middle order instead of opening the innings.
