Ganguly sought Wright's apology - Shukla

PTI August 15, 2006
A sobbingVirender Sehwag, an incensed Indian team and an angry Sourav Ganguly, thecaptain, demanding an apology from coach John Wright. This was the tense scenein the Indian dressing-room at The Oval in 2002 after Wright hd held Sehwag bythe collar and "barked" at him for throwing away his wicket in a NatWest Trophymatch against Sri Lanka in England. The former New Zealand skipper has gonepublic with this sensational incident in his just-published book John Wright'sIndian Summers and more details of what happened emerged today from the thenmanager of the Indian team Rajiv Shukla, now a senior office-bearer of theIndian board. Asked about Wright's revelation, a reluctant Shukla told PTI thathe had kept the incident under wraps all these years because what happens insidethe dressing-room is not supposed to be divulged. However, this no longerapplied as Wright had spilled the beans, he said. "We were sitting in thebalcony outside the dressing room at The Oval. Sehwag had just got out and goneinto the dressing-room. Suddenly an agitated captain Ganguly came out from theroom and complained to me that the coach had slapped Sehwag who was sobbing,"Shukla recalled. "I rushed to the dressing-room and found that Sehwag was indeedsobbing. He told me that Wright had pushed him. I patted him and controlledhim." Shukla then went looking for the coach. "He was not in the dressing-roombut after some effort I found him in a small room adjacent to it. He was all byhimself, tensed up and smoking as he usually did whenever he was in tension," hesaid. Shukla said he had told Wright that he should not have treated Sehwag inthis manner and that the opening batsman was justifiably upset. "Wrightimmediately accepted his mistake. My own view is that the coach wanted Sehwag toscore more runs and when the batsman had got out he could not control his angerbecause of which he had got hold of Sehwag's collar and pushed him. "I knewthat Wright had affection for Sehwag and had reacted to his getting out like aguru reacting to the failure of a disciple. He always used to urge Sehwag not tolift the ball because he often lost his wicket that way." An angry Gangulydemanded that Wright should apologise to the entire team and this, says Shukla,put him in a difficult position. He immediately consulted Sachin Tendulkar andthe team's media manager Amrit Mathur. "The advice I got was that in case Wrightapologised to the whole team, his authority will be eroded. I thought this was avalid point," Shukla said. "I persuaded Sehwag not to seek an apology from thecoach in front of the entire team. Wright was also persuaded to speak to Sehwagand assuage his feelings when the team returned to the hotel. Both agreed tothis. Wright spoke to Sehwag and admitted his mistake." A potentially explosivesituation was thus resolved and did not become public despite so many Indian andBritish journalists orbiting the teams.