Got old, flawed team for World Cup so got result we deserved: Chappell

“I probably had the chance to walk away at that stage (when the team was announced) but you can’t walk out halfway through something you’ve taken on. In hindsight, it may have been the better thing to do but I had committed to be there for that period of time so I decided I’d see it out. But by that stage I’d certainly decided I wasn’t going to go any further,” Chappell, now heading the Future Cricket Academy in Jaipur, says in the documentary which was shot during his two-year tenure in India from June 2005.

Chappell claims that the BCCI consistently thwarted his attempts to bring in youngsters to the team.

“If you’re not making changes and you’re not developing new players and new options, then at some stage or other, it’s going to bite you. It takes the enjoyment out of the job because you don’t feel that you’re able to do the job that I thought I was given to do, which was to help a team that could go on and become the best team in the world.

“We tried to change it to move away from an old-based team, to get some youth and some young legs and some strong arms into the team as well as some good batting and bowling. But unfortunately it’s been resisted, actively resisted from within the team and without so we’re going to finish up with an old team going to the World Cup. On paper, it looks good but I’m not sure it’s going to get the results the people of India want,” Chappell is quoted by the newspaper as saying in the documentary before the World Cup.

Late tonight, Chappell issued a statement expressing dismay over the controversy surrounding the attack on him by a fan in Orissa during his tenure as India’s coach, PTI reported from Jaipur.

“I am dismayed that some sections of the media are intent on fomenting trouble by digging up the past and attributing malicious motives to my actions. I have already set the record straight in respect of all the issues that are being brought up now.”

“I wish to reiterate that I have firmly put the past behind me,” he said.

A report in ‘The Australian’ claimed that Chappell had said the fan-assault on him was a racist attack and the incident convinced him not to renew his contract with the BCCI. He had also accused the BCCI for attempting to cover up the breach of security.

“It’s old news. It was a very emotional time when I made these remarks. It’s a long way back and I’d like to talk about other things now,” Chappell told a news channel.

Sourav got it wrong

Guru Greg tracks Chappell’s tumultuous relationship with former skipper Sourav Ganguly, with the former coach admitting that it was the Bengal veteran who got him the India job. “From an Indian cultural point of view, if you do someone a favour then they owe you for life. Sourav may have thought that was the way it is. It couldn’t be that way. A, I can’t work that way, and B, it doesn’t work that way from a team point of view. The team unit is more important than the individual, whoever that individual is,” says Chappell in the documentary.