Greg in silent mode after his Short Message Shocker

After the controversial long e-mail that had Sourav Ganguly’s career in a fix immediately after he joined

After the controversial long e-mail that had Sourav Ganguly’s career in a fix immediately after he joined, Team India coach Greg Chappell is again in the news, not just for the Indian team’s debacle in the World Cup, but for another message, this time an sms, sent to Rajan Bala of The Asian Age.

While the first instance was on the issue of discipline of the then skipper, this time (before the team ventured out to the Caribbean) it was on the team composition.

Chappell has now refused to comment on the existence of the SMS in question (in a television interview), though the journalist has already revealed its contents, saying Chappell claimed senior players in the side resisted the inclusion of younger players and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar sided with the seniors fearing a media backlash.

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“Even in the last selection meeting, I fought for youth. The senior players fought against it and the chairman went with them out of fear of media, if youth did not perform,” Chappell wrote in his SMS.

This message was sent to the writer on the morning of the ODI against Sri Lanka at Visakhapatnam on February 17. In the same SMS, the Australian observed young stumper-batsman Dinesh Kaarthick had leadership material. “Kaarthick will be a very good batsman and by the way, he is a potential leader,” Chappell said. Chappell had also confided with the writer that “Suresh Raina is a must. But he was not wanted.”

Later, talking to NDTV, Chappell described media reports from India claiming that he was quitting as rubbish and said that he had not taken any decision yet.