Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh recently opened up about the challenging period the Indian cricket team endured during Greg Chappell’s tenure as head coach. Given his stature as one of the game’s greats, his appointment generated immense excitement among fans, who looked forward to seeing him work with stars such as Sachin Tendulkar , Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid . Following India’s runner-up finish at the 2003 ODI World Cup, where they lost to Australia in the final, Chappell was appointed head coach in June 2005.
Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh recently opened up about the challenging period the Indian cricket team endured during Greg Chappell’s tenure as head coach.
“The way Chappell behaved with Dada (Ganguly), and whatever he did with the Indian team during those days, it was one of the darkest and worst chapters in the history of Indian cricket. Appointing him as head coach was one of the worst decisions made by the Indian management. “He spoiled the entire team. Our team was one of the strongest and most closely-knit teams, and he literally broke it apart,” he added. “In my opinion, Chappell’s main strategy was something else. In those days, India were the only team that consistently challenged Australia.
It’s possible that he tried to divide us so that we couldn’t play as a united team on the field and would eventually lose matches. However, Chappell’s stint was marred by controversy and ultimately culminated in India’s shocking group-stage exit from the 2007 ODI World Cup. The players who played together in the 2003 ODI World Cup and shared such great bonding were no longer talking to each other. The same thing happened during the 2007 World Cup,” he said.
Speaking on the Prakhar Gupta Podcast, Harbhajan described that period as “the darkest days of Indian cricket” and accused Chappell of adopting a “divide and rule” policy within the team. He implemented a divide-and-rule policy, where he made the players fight among themselves while acting as the ruler,” said Harbhajan.
