Senior Indian cricketers should have taken up their problems with Chappell with BCCI earlier: Kirti Azad

Former Indian cricketer and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirti Azad said on Tuesday that he was not at all surprised by Sachin Tendulkar's lashing of former India cricket team coach Greg Chappell in his soon to be released autobiography, but added that the matter could have been sorted out seven years ago.

"We all are aware of the fact that something wrong was going on in the Indian cricket team, the relations with Greg Chappell were not very good. I fail to understand why so late; it should have been protested there and then," Azad said.

"The Chappell saga has been history written in black as far as cricket is concerned. There were controversies all the time, and the team was doing very badly. It seemed that Greg Chappell wanted to divide the side," he added.

Azad also suggested that Sachin Tendulkar must have raised the issue right then only, as it was in the interest of the national team.

Taking aim at Chappell, who coached India between 2005 and 2007, Tendulkar in his soon-to-be-released autobiography 'Playing it My Way', has claimed that the former Australian captain had suggested that he take over from Rahul Dravid as captain before the 2007 World Cup that was played in the Caribbean.

"Unlike John Wright and Gary Kirsten, Greg was like a ringmaster who imposed his ideas on us," says Tendulkar in his upcoming autobiography.

However, Chappel has reportedly rejected the charges as untrue.

In 2011, he described Tendulkar as 'fragile on occasions'.