Players back embattled Ganguly

The fracas surrounding Greg Chappell and Sourav Ganguly escalated on Sunday when several members of the Indian team stood up for their captain, on return to India. Newspapers around the country were awash with stories of how certain members of the team were unhappy with the manner in which Chappell was handling matters. There has been a clear polarisation in the team, into pro-Ganguly and pro-Chappell camps.

The most vocal member of the pro-Ganguly camp has been Harbhajan Singh, who became the first member of this team to come out in defence of Ganguly, accusing Chappell of instilling "fear and insecurity" and slamming him for "double standards" in a Press Trust of India report. Cricinfo has learned that Harbhajan is not alone in feeling this way and that there is indeed a fair bit of anger within the team. "You can't just talk to the Indian captain like that, asking him to stand down on the morning of a Test. Sourav has led India for long now and that's not the way a coach should talk, no matter what his stature is," said one player, who obviously did not want to be named.

But it is not so much what Chappell has said, as the manner in which he has put things across that have irked members of the team - a mix of senior and junior players. "He's a bit too rough in his approach. He's just come to the job and he's being ruthless. We all know that we have to work hard on fitness and all that, but you can't just push people away the first time they struggle with a fitness regimen," said another player.

In all this though, it is not as though the whole team has turned against Chappell. "He's very direct in his approach and some of the guys don't like that. But the point really isn't how he puts things across. He is trying to implement some plans and there's some resistance to that. There's always bound to be some resistance to change," said another player.

With the whole issue being thrashed out in the media rather than the dressing-room, it has become increasingly difficult for any of the concerned parties to back down from a stance. Had the matter been kept inhouse - as it has been when there have been disagreements in the past - the situation is unlikely to have deteriorated to this extent. In two days a panel including former captains Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, will hear from Chappell and Ganguly, and they have their hands full.