‘Don’t need fan like you’ – Glenn Maxwell bares open fallout with Virender Sehwag during IPL 2017 in his book. (Source – BCCI/IPL)
Australia’s Glenn Maxwell played for Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) from 2014 to 2017. The franchise reached the finals only once in their IPL journey, and it happened during 2014 season. During their what could be termed as the best season, Maxwell was the leading run scorer with 552 runs at a strike rate of 187.75. Subsequently, he was named as the captain of the team in 2017 and Maxwell has shed light on the treatment he was subjected to by former captain and veteran batter Virender Sehwag.
The Aussie revealed that, Sehwag who was the ‘mentor’ of the team held a tight grip on decisions which were to be taken. The 37-year-old revealed that the former India opener had provided him word on featuring as the Kings’ captain. He also added that neither him nor the coach of the team was in charge of things at any point in time.
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“I was going to be captain, which Sehwag told me when we met during the Test series. We had played together, but now he had retired into what was described at the time as a “mentor” role. We discussed how the team would operate, and I thought we were all on the same page,” Maxwell wrote in his book.
“How wrong I was. Our coach, J Arunkumar, was coming in for his first season, and it became clear to him that he was coach in name only, with Sehwag pulling the strings… Privately, though, I had coaches and players coming to me asking what on earth was going on, and I found it difficult to give them a straight answer,” he added.
In his book “The Showman”, he alleged that from deciding the playing XI to abstaining him from going to the press conference when team was all-out for 73 runs while blaming the former for not taking up the responsibility as leader, he added that Virender Sehwag ‘held the strings’.
“Upon getting onto the team bus, I found I’d been deleted from the main WhatsApp group. What was going on here? By the time we reached the hotel my phone was blowing up, with Sehwag having unloaded on me as a “big disappointment”, blaming me for not taking responsibility as captain, and all the rest. It was unpleasant, especially when I thought we had parted on good terms,” he mentioned further.
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Maxwell had a subpar IPL 2017 as the batter failed replicate his standardised performance with the bat. He scored 310 runs in 14 games at a strike rate of 173.18. As soon as Sehwag delivered the statement that Maxwell did not show up as the leader, the conversation following the press conference put an end to the relationship.
“I texted him to say how much it hurt to read those comments and added that he had lost a fan in me for the way he had conducted himself. Sehwag’s response was simple: “Don’t need fan like you.” We never spoke again. I knew my time was at an end and told the owners as much: if Sehwag was going to stick around, they were making a mistake and not to bother with me,” Maxwell concluded.