New Delhi, May 9:

Indian cricket was plunged into fresh controversy on Wednesday after a TV sting caught national selectors blaming ex-coach Greg Chappell and senior players for a disastrous World Cup.

A private broadcaster showed selectors accusing the Australian of running a divide-and-rule policy. Chappell quit as coach of India after the World Cup debacle that saw them exit in the first round after losses to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

The four national selectors — Ranjib Biswal, Bhupinder Singh Senior, Venkatapathy Raju and Sanjay Jagdale — squarely blamed Chappell and his star cricketers for the humiliation.

“Greg wanted to show everybody he was the boss. He was not happy with anybody,” said Bhupinder Singh. “There were instances when Chappell was not talking to senior players for four to five days. He was not on talking terms with Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh,” Bhupinder said.

Biswal said Chappell could not understand the psyche of Indian cricketers. “He was more like a schoolmaster than a friend,” he said.

Tendulkar and Ganguly were blamed for nurturing their own captaincy ambitions over incumbent Rahul Dravid. “They were not supporting Dravid, some players were backing Tendulkar, some Ganguly. I won’t call it factionalism but there were some personal problems,” said Sanjay Jagdale.

Bhupinder Singh said if five players had ego problems, Chappell was the sixth problem.

An official from the Board of Control For Cricket in India refused to comment on the sting saying he had not seen the programme, which contained undercover footage recorded in a car. “We will have to see whether the tape is authentic or not.”

The revelations came as India prepare to take on Bangladesh in the first of a three-match one-day series starting on Thursday in Dhaka. Dravid, meanwhile, appeared unconcerned by the controversy.

“I am not going to react on these sting operations,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything and I cannot comment on everything that somebody says.” But the Indian captain went out of his way to rubbish suggestions that he did not receive support from Ganguly and Tendulkar.