NEW DELHI: Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell spilled the beans on the team infighting during his stint with Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in the IPL, where he played from 2014 to 2017.
Maxwell had an outstanding 2014 season, amassing 552 runs with a strike rate exceeding 187. However, his fortunes declined during the 2017 season, and his role came under scanner due to shifting of power structure, as he revealed in his latest book.
Virender Sehwag was roped in as mentor of Punjab and it was the time when Maxwell was named the side’s captain. However, the duo found themselves at loggerheads with Sehwag asserting his authority and taking control of decisions, including selecting the playing XI.
“When it came to selection, I thought it might be a good idea to bring the coaches into a WhatsApp group to make our decisions. Everyone agreed to this and shared their teams, with the exception of Sehwag,” Maxwell wrote in his book, the excerpt of which was published on ESPNCricinfo.
“At the end of the process, he made it clear that he would pick the starting XI, end of story. We were losing on and off the field by now, with Sehwag on more than one occasion making decisions that didn’t necessarily make sense.”
Maxwell revealed that his relationship with Sehwag deteriorated further after he publicly criticized him. This public criticism deepened the rift between the two, worsening their already strained dynamic.
“The season came down to our final group game against Pune away from home, and we had a shocker batting first on a wet wicket, rolled for 73. It was all over. In the context of what was going on, I’m still quite proud of how we were able to broadly keep the show on the road until that stage,” Maxwell wrote.
“I was also happy with how I performed, doing the right thing as leader by giving myself the chance to influence games at the right time with bat and ball. Of course, we were all flat not to make the postseason, but it could have been so much worse.
“I volunteered to do press that night, but Sehwag said he would instead. 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.”
“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. He only lasted one more season,” Maxwell wrote.