TIL Desk Sports/ Greg Chappell was “rigid and inflexible” in his approach as a coach and did not know how to run an international team, former India batsman V V S Laxman has claimed in his book. Laxman, in his recently launched autobiography ‘281 And Beyond’, reveals that under the former Australian coach team India was divided into two or three factions and there was a serious trust deficit.
“The coach had his favourites, who were well looked after, while the others were left to fend for themselves. The team had disintegrated before our eyes,” he writes.
“Greg’s entire stint had been cause for bitterness. He was rigid and inflexible in his approach, and didn’t know how to run an international team. He often seemed to forget that it was the players who played the game and were stars, not the coach,” Laxman notes in the book which he has co-authored with cricket writer R Kaushik.
Chappell’s controversial stint with the Indian team ran from May 2005 to April 2007. The book is a candid account of Laxman’s cricketing journey right from his early childhood days to playing international Cricket, to the IPL and to being a commentator.
