Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir has quashed the controversy surrounding reports of leaked dressing room conversations during the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, calling it just a report not a truth. There were reports of disquiet and turmoil in the Indian team dressing room during their ongoing series after their 184-run defeat to Australia in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne, claiming that head coach Gautam Gambhir is believed to have said, “Bahut ho gaya (I’ve had enough) in his dressing room speech, with the dressing room environment being ‘far from ideal’.
Addressing the press conference on the eve of the Sydney Test, Gambhir downplayed such claims and said, “Those are just reports. That’s not the truth. I don’t think I need to answer any reports. There were some honest words, that is what I can say. Honesty is very important. Honesty is extremely important if you want to go and achieve great things.”
“Team first. It’s a team game, and everyone understands this. Debates between a player and a coach should stay between them. Any conversations in the dressing room should stay in the dressing room,” he added.
A report in The Indian Express on December 1 had claimed that Gambhir went on to tell the players that some of them were doing their own thing in the name of the “natural game”, instead of playing shots based on the situation. The report also claims Gambhir saying he let the team do what it wanted for the “last six months” but would he now “decide” how they would play in the longer format.
It further mentioned that Gambhir is learnt to have said that going ahead, those who don’t abide by his pre-decided team strategy would be given a “thank you” and that he had been deciding for inclusion of veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara, an idea shot down by the selection committee.
