Ganguly sought Wright's apology - Shukla

A sobbing Virender Sehwag, an incensed Indian team and an angry Sourav Ganguly, the captain, demanding an apology from coach John Wright. This was the tense scene in the Indian dressing-room at The Oval in 2002 after Wright hd held Sehwag by the collar and "barked" at him for throwing away his wicket in a NatWest Trophy match against Sri Lanka in England.

The former New Zealand skipper has gone public with this sensational incident in his just-published book John Wright's Indian Summers and more details of what happened emerged today from the then manager of the Indian team Rajiv Shukla, now a senior office-bearer of the Indian board.

Asked about Wright's revelation, a reluctant Shukla told PTI that he had kept the incident under wraps all these years because what happens inside the dressing-room is not supposed to be divulged. However, this no longer applied as Wright had spilled the beans, he said.

"We were sitting in the balcony outside the dressing room at The Oval. Sehwag had just got out and gone into the dressing-room. Suddenly an agitated captain Ganguly came out from the room and complained to me that the coach had slapped Sehwag who was sobbing," Shukla recalled. "I rushed to the dressing-room and found that Sehwag was indeed sobbing. He told me that Wright had pushed him. I patted him and controlled him."

Shukla then went looking for the coach. "He was not in the dressing-room but after some effort I found him in a small room adjacent to it. He was all by himself, tensed up and smoking as he usually did whenever he was in tension," he said.

Shukla said he had told Wright that he should not have treated Sehwag in this manner and that the opening batsman was justifiably upset. "Wright immediately accepted his mistake. My own view is that the coach wanted Sehwag to score more runs and when the batsman had got out he could not control his anger because of which he had got hold of Sehwag's collar and pushed him.

"I knew that Wright had affection for Sehwag and had reacted to his getting out like a guru reacting to the failure of a disciple. He always used to urge Sehwag not to lift the ball because he often lost his wicket that way."

An angry Ganguly demanded that Wright should apologise to the entire team and this, says Shukla, put him in a difficult position. He immediately consulted Sachin Tendulkar and the team's media manager Amrit Mathur. "The advice I got was that in case Wright apologised to the whole team, his authority will be eroded. I thought this was a valid point," Shukla said.

"I persuaded Sehwag not to seek an apology from the coach in front of the entire team. Wright was also persuaded to speak to Sehwag and assuage his feelings when the team returned to the hotel. Both agreed to this. Wright spoke to Sehwag and admitted his mistake."

A potentially explosive situation was thus resolved and did not become public despite so many Indian and British journalists orbiting the teams.