Admonished by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for his criticism of former skipper Sourav Ganguly, coach Greg Chappell has admitted it was a "mistake" to have made such comments.
Chappell's admission came at a late night meeting called by BCCI President Sharad Pawar here in the wake of the letter written to him by Ganguly wherein he complained about the remarks made by the coach in an interview to a British daily.
In the meeting lasting 30 minutes, it was made clear to Chappell that such interviews were unwarranted and the Australian, on his part, admitted that it had been a mistake to make the comments, particularly the one which related to Ganguly's refusal to step down from captaincy.
"Chappell admitted during the meeting that it had been a mistake on his part to have suggested that (captaincy was utterly important to Ganguly's life and finances)," said Cricket Board Secretary Niranjan Shah who also attended the meeting.
Later addressing mediapersons, Pawar said Chappell had assured the Board that he would not talk about any individual players in future and restrict his comments to the team's performance.
"We expressed our displeasure to Chappell on this issue and he has assured that he would not make any comments about any individual player," Pawar said adding "we want to close the chapter here."
When asked about Ganguly's reported threat of going to court over Chappell's remarks, the Board president said the Bengal left-hander was a contracted player with the BCCI.
"If the contract does not prohibit him from going to court, he is free to do so. Otherwise he cannot," Pawar said.
Before meeting Chappell, the Board officials also met some senior cricketers including skipper Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble for close to half an hour.
Shah said the meeting with the players was an informal one and Chappell's recent remarks on Ganguly did not figure in the discussions.
"It was a general discussion and Chappell's remarks about Ganguly were not brought up," Shah said.
