Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has revealed that he ignored Greg Chappell’s approach to sign a petition to the Pakistan government for the welfare of Imran Khan, amid the deteriorating health of the former Pakistan captain in custody. Ganguly admitted that his strained relationship with the former India head coach was the reason behind his decision to ignore Chappell’s request. Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, and 12 other international cricket legends signed the petition for Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup-winning captain, who has been in custody since 2023.
For the unversed, Chappell was appointed head coach of India in 2005, with Ganguly, who was the captain at that time, backing the appointment of the former Australia captain. However, their relationship quickly turned sour after Chappell reportedly wrote to the BCCI that Ganguly wasn’t fit for captaincy, both mentally and physically.
Ganguly was eventually stripped of the captaincy, with Rahul Dravid replacing him at the helm, and was also dropped from the team. Chappell’s tenure, however, didn’t last long as he resigned after India’s exit from the 2007 World Cup in the group stage.
“Yes, but I don’t answer him. I don’t answer people who are not honest. You may have opinions. You may feel that someone is not a good player or an average player, but I don’t like people who take the wrong route to solve problems. I like people who tell me on my face that you are not good enough,” Ganguly said on AddaGBPodcast.
Ganguly also revealed that Chappell had approached him to become the head coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2011, but he was having none of it.
“He had mailed me once earlier as well, in 2011, when I was the captain. He wanted to coach KKR, with me as captain. Would have been brilliant (sarcastically). These people must be thinking Dada can’t be a fool. I can be a fool once, not twice,” he added.