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Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh on Wednesday took a dig at the national side’s former coach Greg Chappell for his recent comments over MS Dhoni‘s finishing skills. Greg Chappell, in a recent interaction on Facebook with the Playwrite Foundation, spoke about his role in helping former India captain MS Dhoni blossom into a calculative finisher.
Greg Chappell reveals the challenges he set for MS Dhoni
During the conversation, Greg Chappell said he had challenged Dhoni to hit more along the ground at a time when the former Team India skipper was sending the bowlers to a leather hunt during the India vs Sri Lanka series back in 2005. The former Australian captain said that he always challenged MS Dhoni to ‘finish games’ for India and he would have a huge smile on his face after helping the side win the match.
Chappell said that the Sri Lanka series saw him witness MS Dhoni’s power-hitting at its very best. He further said that for one of the matches in Pune, he had asked Dhoni to play along the ground. Such was the impact of the instruction that Dhoni had to gain Chappell’s approval of hitting a six only through 12th man RP Singh communicating the message to him once the target to achieve was in single digits.
Harbhajan Singh responds to Greg Chappell’s comments on MS Dhoni
However, the World Cup-winning Indian off-spinner responded to Greg Chappell’s comment over MS Dhoni by saying that the former coach asked Dhoni to play along the ground because of his aggressive batting. He further implied that Greg Chappell could not be trusted. Chappell was known to be too radical in his thought process during his tenure, asking the likes of Irfan Pathan to focus more on his batting for instance.
Greg Chappell’s stint with Team India
Greg Chappell was appointed as the coach of Team India in 2005 after being recommended by the then India captain and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly. His tenure ended in 2007 amid controversies, including widely publicized rifts with Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar. Sourav Ganguly had previously said that in the past that hiring Greg Chappell was his ‘biggest mistake’.
Post his tenure, the likes of Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag also took a dig at Greg Chappell by saying that he had great cricketing knowledge but when it came to man-management, he was a total flop.