4 min readJan 13, 2025 10:02 AM IST
First published on: Jan 13, 2025 at 10:01 AM IST
Robin Uthappa revealed what went wrong during the Indian dressing room under Greg Chappell era when India bowed out from the 2007 ODI World Cup in the group stage.
“Us team ka mahool bahut kaharab tha (The environment of that team was very bad),” Robin Uthappa told The Lallantop.
“In Cricket the most interesting thing is that 15-20 people from different states, culture and households are playing for one aim that is to play for India. There is a magic in that. When you get that right, playing cricket is something else.
“We enjoyed each other’s success in 2007 t20 World Cup. We played like a unit. Even if I got out, I want you (next batter) to score runs. Go and win the match for us. It doesn’t matter, who is scoring runs or taking wickets,” he said.
Uthappa said how Greg Chappell wanted to impose the Australian cricket culture in the Indian dressing room, and faced resistance from the senior players.
“As a youngster Greg Chappell was very good for me. I just entered the team. I was young, and he used to back youngsters. As a 20-year-old, a dream was to play for India, win for India, hopefully one World Cup I will win for India. When you get that opportunity to play for the country, you feel like boss you don’t need anything else. I will give everything for my team. I played with that mindset,” he said.
“Greg Chappell was running an agenda. He was coaching with an Aussie mindset that “Humare yahaan aisa chalta hai (This is 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,” he added.
Uthappa also revealed how pushing on fitness by Greg Chappell ruffled few feathers in the Indian dressing room.
“Fitness was not that important back then in Indian cricket culture. Training was not important. Our fielding was not good back then. But Individual skills were unbelievable,” he said.
“Fitness culture was only among Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Javagal Srinath, the Karnataka boys because they got that exposure. When Sri bhai went to South Africa for his shoulder surgery and did his rehab there only. He learnt a lot in South Africa. Sri bhai, Anil bhai and Rahil bhai are great friends and they discussed it among themselves.
“And till that time there was no gym culture.
“I was Shankar Basu’s guinea pig at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). He experimented everything on me. Powerlifting started with me.
“it was during the Greg Chappell era when strength training was introduced. In Australia, it already existed.
“Greg Chappell saw that missing in India. Fitness was not the way of life. He was trying to bring in change.
“At that point, he found resistance from the seniors. Dada (Sourav Ganguly) was there, Paaji (Sachin Tendulkar) was there, Laxi (VVS Laxman) bhai, Viru (Virender Sehwag), and Zak (Zaheer Khan) bhai. They all were really settled players. They were not used to the fact that here is a guy coming and imposing things on us without showing us the basis respect that is shown.
“He also had a bad habit that he used to leak information, when things didn’t used to go according to his plans. That didn’t ran well with the players. He leaked dressing room information,” he said.
Former Australian cricketer Greg Chappell. (FILE) 
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