Dravid pours spleen on Desai after report leak

Kolkata, Feb 7 (UNI) India skipper Rahul Dravid made no attempts to hide his angst and displeasure towards Chetan Desai as he brushed aside the controversial report by the team manager on South African tour as ''unworthy'' of his comments.

In an expose last night, a private electronic channel had published Indian team manager to South Africa Chetan Desai's report that disclosed coach Greg Chappell and Virender Sehwag were involved in a feud during India's disastrous tour of South Africa.

Apart from the Chappell-Sehwag argument, there were also serious differences while selecting the team for the Test matches, the report stated.

Reacting sharply to the questions directed to him on the matter at the press conference, Dravid said, ''I have not seen it. So I don't know how authentic the report is.'' ''It is important to see the whole matter in perspective. I looked up the Indian cricket's history and didn't see his (Desai's) name appear prominently at any point of time. I expect you to ask questions about the players who have played the game for sometime,'' he said.

Further directing his ire towards Mr Desai, he said, ''I will go back and look up the book again. I am only going to comment on those worthy of my comment.'' In the report, the manager had gone on to question Sehwag's commitment towards the game. He quoted an incident where Sehwag asked Chappell and Ian Fraser for a special practice session at 0630 hrs. However, the Delhi bat himself failed to turn up. When Chappell asked him the reason of him not turning up, then he simply said, ''I didn't feel like coming for practice''.

Desai also blamed Dravid's adamancy to include Sehwag in the team for the last Test as the main reason as to why India lost the Durban Test. This decision was solely taken by Dravid against the better judgment of the rest of the management, the report is believed to have stated.

Meanwhile, Greg Chappell remained non-commital on the whole issue.

''I have nothing to say on the whole matter. I will not comment on the matter.'' UNI