What actually happened between Ravi Shastri and Saurav Ganguly
Jan 28, 2019 at 3:03 PM
Ravi Shastri, who has shouldered those responsibilities of an Indian side that recently lost a test series in England in 2014, was utterly disappointed when he was ignored for the role of a coach for the Indian team for the next year even after his 18-month service to the national side.
His contract with the side ended after India’s semi-final exit in the recent World T20 and left India without a head coach for the Zimbabwe tour led by MS Dhoni.
However, the BCCI did not waste too much time as they put together a Cricket Advisory Committee that consisted of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Saurav Ganguly which decided that Anil Kumble, the former Indian cricketer was the right man for the job after conducting interviews of all the potential candidates.
The interviews took place in Dharamsala on Thursday the 23rd of June and Kumble was later in the day announced as the head coach for the side for a period of one year starting with the tour of West Indies in July.
This left the former coach of the national side Ravi Shastri with some pondering to do.
However, just a day later, Shastri speaking to the media said that he was disappointed in Saurav Ganguly who missed his interview.
Shastri was interviewed between 5 pm and 6 pm on Thursday and Ganguly reportedly had a CAB meeting to attend to and though he promised to attend the interview through Skype, it was later understood that he was missing from Shastri’s interview and the former coach felt that this might have affected his chances of landing the job.
These statements extracted no response from the former Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly who chose to not comment when asked about it in the media.
However, Shastri in another interview on the same day went on to ask Ganguly if he had a problem with him. He also felt that Ganguly’s absence from the interview was disrespectful to him and the whole system used by the BCCI.
The whole statement seemed to have crossed the line and it was no surprise that ‘Dada’ had something to say this time.
“Shastri has made it very personal, (I am) hurt by his attack,” Ganguly said in an interview on Tuesday.
He went on to explain that he had no special grudge against him and that if he thinks he is the reason for his snub, that he was wrong.
“If Ravi Shastri says he was not made coach of India because of me, he is living in a fool’s world,” he said.
This controversy has now taken the centre stage and will not reside till India start performing well in West Indies but for two of the best players to have come out of the country fighting on the process of selection is not a healthy sign for the sport in the nation.
Cricket fans in India worship the sport and these controversies only makes them lose their faith.