We Were Lucky To Have A Coach Like Greg Chappell Who Supported Junior Players: Suresh Raina

Contrasting to several former Indian cricketers, Suresh Raina has an entirely different outlook on Greg Chappell. Greg Chappell served as the Indian team’s coach from 2005 to 2007 and had one of the most controversial tenures. While he paved the way for several youngsters, he was also responsible for creating a rift between the senior players. But Suresh Raina remarked he was fortunate to play under him.

Greg Chappell had a controversial-laden tenure with the Indian team for a couple of years and most notably had with the former captain Sourav Ganguly. Due to several indifferences within the side, the men in blue suffered a humiliating exit in the 2007 World Cup at the West Indies. India lost their group matches to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and were eliminated.

Suresh Raina feels that the combination of Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell was disciplined as the youngsters, including him worked very hard. The retired batsman revealed that the management under Chappell supported plenty of youngsters and as a result, he also got opportunities. Raina remarked that Chappell wanted to make India the number one fielding team.

“I think him Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid were very disciplined. I and a lot of other youngsters who came into the team worked really hard. They wanted to have a lot of youngsters in the squad. We were lucky to have a coach like him where they supported junior players. He wanted to make India a No. 1 fielding side,” Raina told Gaurav Kapur on the podcast ‘The 22 Yarns’.

I learned a lot about captaincy from my Uttar Pradesh captain Kaif Bhai: Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina revealed he got plenty of captaincy insights from his Uttar Pradesh skipper Mohammad Kaif during his Ranji Trophy stint. The 34-year old said he had several candidates in his IPL teams as well, while MS Dhoni taught him how to back players as a leader.

“I learned a lot about captaincy from my Uttar Pradesh captain during the Ranji Trophy as well as from Kaif Bhai. I had a lot of experienced players at Gujarat Lions like Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum, etc. so I learned from them too. I also learned a lot from MS Dhoni and also captained a few games for CSK. He taught me how to back players as a captain,” he added.

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