VVS backs Sachin, says Chappell created negative team environment

Former Indian batsman VVS Laxman on Tuesday agreed with team-mate Sachin Tendulkar's assessment of then-India coach Greg Chappell's as a 'ringmaster', adding that the Australian created a negative team environment.

"Sachin has a right to reveal everything and this was a part of his book. He has had a great contribution to Indian and world cricket. I used to ask him earlier why he didn't come out in the open but he said that he respected the game so much that he did not dare create a furore," Laxman told the media.

"[Former coaches] John Wright and Gary Kirsten created a team environment where we were always able to play with a free mind. It is unfortunate that Chappell created a negative environment during his time as coach, which was uncalled for," he added.

Narrating an anecdote, Laxman said that Chappell would spread discontent in the team and among individual players.

"What Sachin mentioned in his book is a fact. In 2006, when India was playing against England at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, I was not even in the playing eleven and after the match, we were travelling to the West Indies, so the team selection was going to take place the following day and Greg Chappell came to me and asked me if I wanted to open the batting for India. I replied that in 2000, I had decided not to open anymore and I had since been performing when for India. I was shocked and dismayed by the reply I got. Chappell said to me that at the age of 31, isn't it bad that I was staying at home," he said.

Tendulkar, in his soon to be released autobiography 'Playing it My Way', he has lashed out at Greg Chappell, and 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, Chappell has reportedly rejected the charges as untrue.

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