Former Australian cricketer Greg Chappell's tenure as India's head coach has always been surrounded by controversies. Chappell is also heavily criticized for India's early exit in the 2007 ODI World Cup.
Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa spent the initial few years of his career with the Indian team having Greg Chappell as their head coach. After working with him, Uthappa got a lot of ideas about the things that went wrong in his coaching tenure.
Uthappa accused Chappell of leaking certain information from the dressing room and making an agenda. Although Uthappa believes Chappell was good with the younger players, he called him a coach who never respected Indian culture.
“Greg Chappell ran an agenda” – Robin Uthappa
During a discussion on Lallantop, Robin Uthappa was asked about Greg Chappell's tenure as India's head coach, which led to India's decline in cricket. Uthappa claimed that the team environment under Chappell was the worst.
He accused Chappell of running an agenda and coaching with an Aussie mentality that didn't quite work in India. According to Uthappa, Chappell never respected Indian culture and had a bad habit of leaking information when things didn't work out for him.
“Uss team ka mahaul bahut kharab tha (Environment of that team was very bad). Greg Chappell ran a diary. He coached with an Aussie mentality, saying, “That's how we do things in Australia.” I don't think he ever respected Indian culture. He came in and tried to bring the Australian culture,” Uthappa said.
“He also had a bad habit of leaking information when things didn't go according to his plans. That didn't go down well with the players. He leaked information about the dressing room,” he added.
“Greg Chappell was very good to me” – Robin Uthappa
While Greg Chappell did not have a good relationship with the senior players, Robin Uthappa claimed that he was good to him when he was young. He spoke about his mindset when he was selected to play international cricket for India.
“When I was young, Greg Chappell was very good to me. I just came into the team. I was young and he used to support youngsters. At 20, a dream was to play for India, win for India, hopefully win a World Cup for India,” observed Uthappa.
“When you have the opportunity to play for the country, you feel like the boss. You don't need anything else. I will give everything for my team. I played with that mentality,” he added.
Uthappa also revealed that under Chappell, the concept of strength training was introduced which did not work well for the senior players as they were not used to it. Ultimately, Chappell's Australian way of working hurt India's overall performance.
One of India's darkest days in cricket history
Under the leadership of Greg Chappell, India were eliminated from the group stage of the 2007 ODI World Cup held in the West Indies. India suffered shock defeats to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the group stage and were eliminated.
The team had a no. of senior players with captain Rahul Dravid. Chappell was credited with changing the team's batting order and having Sachin Tendulkar bat in the middle order instead of opening the innings.