 "Former India coach shares shocking story about Sourav Ganguly’s ban to support claims of ICC favouring BCCI")
Former India coach Greg Chappell has supported ex-English official Chris Broad’s explosive claims that the International Cricket Council (ICC) was once under pressure to show leniency towards the Indian team and its captain Sourav Ganguly.
The Australian legend revealed a never-heard-before story about how the then Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Jagmohan Dalmiya allegedly asked Chappell to do something to reduce Ganguly’s suspension so he could play a tour in Sri Lanka.
Chappell reveals a never-heard-before story
Chappell, who coached India between 2005 and 2007, told the Sydney Morning Herald that Dalmiya approached him at the start of his tenure and asked him if he could help make Ganguly available despite his ban for slow over-rate offences.
“Dalmiya offered to have his suspension reduced so that he could go to Sri Lanka at the start of my tenure. I said no, I don’t want to rort the system, he has to do his time. Dalmiya seemed OK for him to miss,” Chappell was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
The revelation comes after former ICC match referee Chris Broad’s recent comments in the Telegraph, where the veteran official claimed he was pressured by higher authorities to be “lenient” towards India over slow over-rate issues.
Broad said he received a phone call during a game instructing him to “find some time because it’s India.” He added that in the following match, when Ganguly again failed to maintain the over-rate, he was told to go ahead and fine him, describing the situation as “political.”
“India were three, four overs down at the end of a game so it constituted a fine,” Broad said. “I got a phone call saying, ‘be lenient, find some time because it’s India’. And it’s like, right, OK,” Broad said.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“So we had to find some time, brought it down below the threshold. The very next game, exactly the same thing happened. He [Ganguly] didn’t listen to any of the hurry-ups and so I phoned and said, ‘what do you want me to do now?’ and I was told ‘just do him’. So there were politics involved, right from the start. A lot of the guys now are either politically more savvy or just keeping the head below the parapet. I don’t know,” he added.
The Ganguly incident dates back to 2005, when the former Indian skipper was fined and later banned for slow over-rates during an ODI series against Pakistan. His six-match suspension was later reduced to four after an appeal.
Dalmiya served as ICC President from 1997 to 2000 and also held top positions in the BCCI and the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB). At the time of his death in 2015, he was serving as both BCCI President and CAB President - a dual role that would not be permitted today under the board’s new constitution.
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