The Greg Chappell-era undoubtedly remains one of the darkest phases in Indian cricket.

The Chappell-era commenced with his spat with then captain Sourav Ganguly, resulting in the latter's omission from the team, unrest between senior players and team management, the Australian's infamous finger row in Kolkata, etc.

While Team India did well and won some famous series under Chappell, his era is significantly remembered for India's first-round exit from the 2007 ODI World Cup in the Caribbean island.

Suresh Raina, who retired from international cricket along with MS Dhoni on August 15, 2020, gave more insights of the Chappell era.

In his autobiography ‘Believe’, an excerpt of which was published in mid-day, Raina credited Chappell for the rise of youngsters such as Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, etc. and making them a daunting force while chasing.

However, the swashbuckling Chennai Super Kings (CSK) player also opened up on a shocking incident where a senior player mocked him during the infamous era.

"I remember one of the senior players of the team came up to me to mock me, saying that I was the only one who got all the ‘extra’ practice sessions as if it was only me who was going to play the match.

So, I quickly asked him to join me because I had no intentions to hurt anyone. For me, ragging was no big deal since I was used to that, thanks to my hostel life.

"But I wouldn’t say anyone ever got ‘ragged’ in the Indian dressing room. Believe me, I know what ragging is. We didn’t have that. What we did have were some tense moments with some players. Raina added that then skipper Rahul Dravid played a key role in youngsters flourishing even in the troubled times during the Chappell era. He further hailed him for not letting the youngsters get affected by the unrest among senior players and in the team environment in general.

There were instances when we would greet some of the senior players in the morning, and they wouldn’t greet back. But I never took these to heart,” said Raina. He said, "Rahul (Dravid) Bhai was a really good captain that way. He would make sure our performances weren’t affected due to those issues. So, we as younger players would never be involved in such situations. Whenever they would have their meetings, we would go out for running or training and thus had no idea as to what happened behind closed doors. In my eyes, Greg was never wrong, since he always strived to make sure the team was on its toes and never favoured any one player. Greg was ruthless when we lost, but most of it was directed towards the senior players."