Chappell faces MPs' ire by Cricket Archive Staff Reporter

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Player:

GS Chappell, SC Ganguly, M Kaif

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DateLine: 28th November 2006

 

Indian coach Greg Chappell Monday came under a fresh spell of attack and faced a threat of a privilege motion in Parliament following his comments on MPs and a further slump in the team's performance in South Africa.

 

But the cricket establishment put up a strong defence of the former Australian captain with BCCI President Sharad Pawar even accusing some unnamed television channels of "instigating" MPs. Enraged MPs took umbrage at Chappell's remarks Monday that he was not worried about the MPs criticism of him. "I can't stop them from making comments, that's what they are paid for to do in Parliament", he had said in Cape Town.

 

As Members of Parliament, cutting across political lines, attacked Chappell for his comments on Parliamentarians, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee summed up the angry MPs' mood, saying " nobody should dictate to us".

 

"If Members of Parliament are willing, a privilege motion can be moved against Chappell," said Renuka Choudhary, Minister of Women and Child Development. CPI Member Gurudas Dasgupta was more critical when he said Chappell had "no business" to make such comments. "He does not understand the nuances of Indian democracy". Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said the coach's comments were regrettable. "The purpose of bringing him as coach has not been served", he said.

 

Ventilating his anger, BJP MP Vijay Kumar Malhotra objected to Chappell's comments, saying "nowadays it has become a fashion to speak against MPs. Obviously, this kind of remark is unwarranted".

 

Chappell, widely seen in West Bengal as the man responsible for Sourav Ganguly's exclusion from the team, also invited attack from the state politicians who took exception to his remarks.

 

Ganguly's brother Snehashish asked Chappell to stop his "impractical experiments" in the interest of Indian cricket and suggested inclusion of Sourav for the team to regain its glory.

 

BCCI President Sharad Pawar said there was no question of interfering with team selection. "The team sometimes performs very well and sometimes loses. This is a game and one should not disproportionate importance to it".

 

Defending Chappell, he said the coach had not said anything offensive and his comments were being misinterpreted. "I know that there is an instigation from most of the channel owners and they are instigating MPs. Many MPs told me", he said.

 

Meanwhile, a group of people, said to be supporters of Lok Janshakti Party, vandalized the house of Mohammad Kaif in Allahabad for his poor show in the ongoing series against South Africa.

 

"A number of people tried to storm the house, broke some electric bulbs and plastered the name plate with mud", police said, adding that Kaif's family members were not present in the house during the protest.

 

Protests were also held in Kolkata and Nagpur where angry cricket fans burnt effigies of Chappell.