A few days after former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly admitted that appointing Greg Chappell as team India coach in 2005 was a mistake, the then BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra has opposed Ganguly’s views and said that he has no regrets on picking Chappell as India coach.

Ganguly and Chappell shared a torrid relationship during two turbulent years in country’s cricket, a time when one of India’s most successful captains was stripped of the captaincy.

“I once had an opportunity to select the coach. I thought I messed it up in 2005 (during Chappell’s recruitment). I have been given that opportunity again. I had taken an interview (Chappell) once and it did not go off well,” Ganguly said a few days ago during the launch of his book ‘A Century Is Not Enough’.

Former Australian player Greg Chappell refused to comment on Ganguly statement as he said:”I have no comment at this stage.”

However, former BCCI president did not agree with Ganguly and said that Chappell was the best candidate at that time.
Speaking from Bhiwani, he said, “We had appointed a committee (Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and S. Venkatraghavan) and all members of the committee were unanimous in this choice.”

“He was the most competent man at the time and his presentation did impress all of us.”

“Chappell was doing fine till his differences with Ganguly surfaced and I was also being told by someone that the team was not united but that was only the hearsay we had, and whatever it is, the issues were sorted out thereafter.”

“I don’t want to comment on why Ganguly has opened the chapter again or should have said so now. But I can tell you we never ever felt that we made a wrong choice. We never repented for our decision. He was found better than all others who were interviewed,” Ranbeer Singh Mahendra concluded.