Did Greg Chappell really tell Deepak Chahar he would never become a cricketer?
As Deepak Chahar became the unlikely hero of India’s win in the closely-fought second ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Tuesday (July 22), former pacer Venkatesh Prasad quickly pointed out an an infamous story involving the paceman and ex India head coach Greg Chappell.
Chappell had a controversial tenure as India’s head coach for two years until India’s disastrous first-round exit from the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean. After being shown the door by BCCI, the former Australia captain joined Rajasthan Cricket Association’s (RCA) cricket academy for some time.
Deepak Chahar has now played 5 ODIs and 14 T20Is for India. (Image courtesy: The Cricket Times)
It is during that stint apparently where Chappell is believed to have told a very young Deepak Chahar that he is not good enough to enter the Rajasthan’s scheme of things and will never be able to become a cricketer.
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“Deepak Chahar was rejected by Greg Chappell at RCA for his height and told to look at a different occupation. And he single-handedly won a match with not even his primary skills. Moral of the story- Believe in yourself and don’t take overseas coaches too seriously,” Prasad tweeted after India sealed the ODI series against Sri Lanka.
Deepak Chahar Was rejected by Greg Chappell at RCA for his height and told to look at a different occupation.
And he single handedly won a match with not even his primary skills.
Moral of the story- Believe in yourself and don't take overseas coaches too seriously. pic.twitter.com/cByzg9uorj— Venkatesh Prasad (@venkateshprasad) July 21, 2021
But how true the Deepak Chahar-Greg Chappell story really is?
Aakash Chopra, who was integral to Rajasthan’s highly inspiring surge towards the coveted Ranji Trophy title back in 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, had also highlighted the Deepak Chahar-Greg Chapell story in his book ‘Out of Blue: Rajasthan’s road to the Ranji Trophy’.
Chopra had further reminisced of that incident and Deepak Chahar’s inspirational journey in one of the videos posted over his Youtube show ‘Aakash Vani’.
“Chahar’s story is very exciting,” Chopra had said. “When he was younger, he used to practice in Rajasthan in Hanumangarh, he met Gregg Chappell – the director of the Rajasthan Cricket Academy at that time, who told him to leave cricket. Chappell told him to leave cricket not because he wouldn’t get selected into the academy but he told him that he would never become a cricketer himself.”
Speaking personally about the incident back in November 2019 to cricket.com, however, Deepak Chahar hinted that much of what has been said around the Indian circuit about his experience with Chappell is purely because of the media hype.
Even though Chahar confirmed that Chappell indeed rejected him at the RCA, there was no revelation from the cricketer of a conversation where the latter may have told the former that he will never become a cricketer.
Chahar, in fact, said it was harder for him to deal with multiple injuries after a highly successful first-class debut with Rajasthan than it was to take Chappell’s rejection in his stride since he was only 14 at the time.
“The media has hyped Greg Chappell rejecting me in the Rajasthan team,” Deepak Chahar had said after his hat-trick in a T20I against Bangladesh. “I was just 14 years old then but since it makes for a good story everyone is writing on it. Of course, Chappell’s rejection motivated me to work harder than I did, but I feel I struggled the most from 2010-18. That phase was more difficult than Chappell’s rejection.”
“I got eight wickets on debut and was also the highest wicket-taker for Rajasthan that Ranji season, but after that I suffered a lot. The last six to seven years have been difficult due to injuries. I was not getting selected. I had no support. It is just lots of hard work which has brought me to the Indian team.”