Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah said Chappell, the Australian batting great who took over as coach of India in June, had been asked to limit his public comments to the game.

Ganguly had complained to him about remarks attributed to Chappell in a British newspaper, which quoted him saying he wanted Ganguly removed from the captaincy because the demands of the position were affecting his batting performance, Shah said.

"Ganguly was upset most by Chappell's comments that he wanted to cling on to the India captaincy for financial reasons," Shah said.

"We have written a letter to Chappell asking him to refrain from making such comments in future. He should restrict himself to talking about the players' performance," he said.

There was no immediate comment from Chappell on the cricket board's missive.

In remarks published in the Guardian newspaper, Chappell was quoted as saying of Ganguly: "We clashed because his needs as a struggling player and captain and those of the team were different.

"It was in his own interest to give himself mind space to work on his batting so that it could be resurrected, but he was not prepared to do that.

"What I didn't realise at that stage was how utterly important to his life and finances being captain was," Chappell was quoted as saying.

Ganguly is India's most successful Test captain with 21 wins.

After his clash with Chappell surfaced during India's tour of Zimbabwe in September, he was sacked from the captaincy in October.

Chappell later wrote in an e-mail to Indian cricket chiefs that was subsequently leaked to the public that Ganguly was "unfit" to lead India and questioned his commitment to the team.

Shah said Ganguly's future as an international cricketer had dimmed when he was left out of the side for the current first Test against England in Nagpur.

Chief selector Kiran More told reporters last week the 33-year-old former captain was unlikely to be selected again because of the selectors' - and Chappell's - desire to promote younger talent.

The Guardian quoted Chappell saying that he may not have succeeded New Zealander John Wright as India's coach if Ganguly had not backed him.

"Certainly there is no way I would have got the job here without his (Ganguly's) influence," the former Australian captain said.

"I helped him with his batting, so maybe he thought I would be his mate and support him now. I am sure he thought he would be able to run me as he did John in the latter part of his time as coach."

According to the Guardian, Chappell said he had asked Ganguly to step down from the captaincy on the Zimbabwe tour, saying the advice was aimed at helping him revive his career.

"In essence I told Sourav that if he wanted to save his career he should consider giving up the captaincy," Chappell was quoted as saying.

"He was just hanging in there. Modest innings were draining him. He had no energy to give to the team, which was helping neither him nor us."

It has been a roller coaster season so far for Ganguly, who has scored 5,221 runs from 88 Tests with 12 centuries.

The left-hander was selected for the first two home Tests against Sri Lanka before being axed from the third and was a controversial selection for the subsequent tour of Pakistan.

In Pakistan, Ganguly did not get to bat in the first Test in Lahore, was dropped for the second in Faisalabad and made 34 and 37 in the third in Karachi which Pakistan won by 341 runs to clinch the series 1-0.