This is something that every cricket fan has heard and how It destroyed Indian cricket at that time and so I am here to tell you the things that happened and what led to such a falling out between the 2. This is one of the ugliest moments in the history of Indian cricket and I wish I did not have to write about this but here I am. Hopefully I can tell you some things they the readers might not know
Before we get on to the chronology of the events, I want to say that I love Sourav Ganguly and the contribution he made for Indian cricket in making sure it is where it is today. He was a fearless leader and all the players loved him and Greg Chappell was one of the best players of his era so it was sad to see what happened. So, let’s see how this unfolded
The Zimbabwe tour and the email leak
It all started with a tour to Zimbabwe and at that time Sourav Ganguly was not In form and Greg Chappell insisted that he would drop him for younger players and this bothered Dada and from here , it is alleged that he faked an injury and then Greg Chappell threatened to quit and both men denied both reports. Then the email was sent to the BCCI by Greg that Sourav Ganguly was physically and mentally unfit to lead the team and he also said that Dada was a negative influence to the team and that email got leaked and it went all downhill from there.
Ganguly omitted from ODI and Test teams
Then came the most difficult part of this ordeal for Dada as first he was dropped from the ODI team which took on Sri Lanka and after India took a 4-0 lead in the 7 match series he was permanently dropped and this was a blow to him. So much so that at Eden Gardens the fans booed the Indian team and cheered the South Africa team. And then came the body blow to Dada as first he was included in the test team to face Sri Lanka but then a few things happened and he was dropped and after that Dada was crying and a sympathy wave developed for him.
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Being overlooked for England and West Indies series
Yuvraj Singh was injured and this opened the door for Dada and even Yuvraj Singh wanted him in his place but the selectors ignored Dada and took Wasim Jaffer in the team and yet again this angered him as well as his fans. After this the West Indies team was picked and yet again there was a chance for Sourav Ganguly to come back in the team but he was again overlooked and this was too much to take for Dada.
Comeback in the South Africa tour
After the poor batting Performances by the batters in the 2006 Champions Trophy Dada was called back in the team and he made runs and runs in all formats of the game. During the first test he made a good 51 runs and then he was called back in the ODI teams for the West Indies and Sri Lanka series and yet again he got lots of runs and in his first ODI match back he scored a match winning 98.
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2007 World Cup Debacle
All of this bad mess was leading to the 2007 World Cup where the results of all this was shown to the world as India had a very strong team In that tournament and they lost their first match against Bangladesh and it went all downhill from there and Greg Chappell was blamed for all of it as he created a divide in the team and after that performance he was sacked and Rahul Dravid was retained as captain.
The Aftermath
Sourav Ganguly rose like a phoenix from the ashes as he had his best year in 2007 in test cricket as he scored 1106 runs in Tests at an average of over 61 with 3 centuries and 4 half centuries. He also made 1240 ODI runs at an average of 44.08 and he was back in the team. Greg Chappell was sacked and Gary Kirsten was made the new head coach and rest as they say is history.
