Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday categorically refuted Ravi Shastri's allegation that he was disrespectful to him by absenting himself during his interview, saying that the latter was 'living in a fool's world' if he thought he was responsible for him not becoming the head coach.
"If Ravi Shastri feels that I am responsible for him not being the coach of India, he is living in a fool's world. There are people in the committee who are more reputed than I am and there are other people involved also who were consulted and spoken about. So that's disappointing," Ganguly told reporters here.
Shastri, who was the team director until the end of the World Twenty20 campaign, was among the frontrunners for the role of the head coach before Anil Kumble was appointed at the helm by the BCCI's cricket advisory committee comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly and VVS Laxman.
However, the decision didn't go down too well with Shastri as he accused Ganguly of disrespecting him and advised the former left-handed batsman to be present in future meetings.
Ganguly responded by saying he was 'hurt and very saddened' by Shastri's 'personal attack'.
"I am extremely saddened to hear that from Ravi. Especially from someone who has been in every BCCI meeting for last 20 years. He has been in my position. He was probably 10 years in this position to select the coach. I don't think he is aware of everything," said Ganguly, who is also the president of Cricket Association of Bengal.
"I had informed the BCCI on 19th June that I will have to leave at 5 pm because the CAB's working committee meeting was supposed to happen that day and being the president of the association I am supposed to chair the meeting," he continued. "It was impossible to cancel the meeting as its schedule was decided 14 days ago, while the Head Coach meeting was decided in two days.
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"Ravi's meeting was at 4.15 pm and doing interview with everyone it went past and we reached 5 o'clock. So I requested the committee if I could come back and do it again on 6 o'clock which they agreed. Later, I got a message from Mr. (Ajay) Shirke that the other two members are requesting if they could continue with Ravi, which I was fine with. That happens everywhere in the world and that's the exact story."
"I am personally hurt because of his disrespect remark. If that had been the case, Ravi's interview wouldn't have been slotted at 4:15 PM. I have got the mails to validate that," he added.