Sachin Tendulkar’s autobiography, which is scheduled to hit the stands on November 6 2014, is the most trending topic on the social media and everywhere else in the cricketing world. Tendulkar, who never got involved in any controversy throughout his long playing career, has made a huge buzz by calling former India coach Greg Chappell, a “dictator”.
Autobiographies, more often that not, are written in a sensational manner, and honestly, there is nothing wrong in it. But, for Tendulkar to suggest that Chappell was a “dictator” in 2007, is hard to comprehend.
Sachin, in his autobiography Playing It My Way, has written that Greg Chappell wanted him to lead India in the 2007 World Cup and not Rahul Dravid. To this, former India captain Sourav Ganguly replied that Dravid told him that he couldn’t control Greg Chappell. After this, Rahul Dravid absolutely rubbished Ganguly’s claim and said that he never had any such conversation with him.
Zaheer Khan, who is also Sachin’s Mumbai teammate, backed Sachin’s statement and said that Chappell had told him that “Zaheer, you will not be playing for India till I remain the coach.”
VVS Laxman said that Indian cricket went backwards during Chappell’s two-year tenure as the national cricket team’s coach.
While Sachin’s teammates are getting together to support him, Greg Chappell has rejected Sachin’s claim. Chappell said that he never contemplated Sachin replacing Rahul Dravid as captain.
Sachin Tendulkar, throughout his career, maintained a very politically correct stand, and this is the reason why he was able to stay away from the controversies. But, for him to slam Chappell now and say he was a “dictator”, will raise a lot of eye-brows and the questions will be asked. “Why did he not speak before?” “Why is Dravid saying no?”
Only time will tell whether Sachin has answers to these questions, but all these allegations and counter-allegations have already created a lot of buzz around Sachin Tendulkar’s autobiography ‘Playing It My Way’. Many would argue that Sachin Tendulkar doesn’t need any “fake” publicity for his book, but then again the same questions will be asked, and it will be interesting to see whether Sachin has enough substance in his book to back his claims. But irrespective of that, well before the book has hit the stands, Tendulkar has ensured it will be a big hit by making these claims and revealing them just a couple of days before the release.
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By The Cricket Lounge
