BENGALURU: Carrying the weight of the most hurtful defeat in more than two decades, Chandrakant Pandit should not be blamed for those moist eyes as he folded his hands as a token of respect for Mumbai’s dressing room. Rajat Patidar completed a cycle for head coach Pandit, 23 years after his failure to win the state’s first Ranji Trophy title as a player, after the most important single in the history of Madhya Pradesh cricket.
“Every trophy gives satisfaction but this one is special. I couldn’t do that years ago (23 years) as an MP captain. Over the years I have always felt that I have left something out here. That’s why I am so excited and passionate about it.’ Pandit has witnessed heartbreak as a player, his best Test innings of 39 runs in the famous tie Test against Australia at Chepauk. Then, he’s well set at 24 World Cup semi-final against England at Wankhede Stadium in 1987, but India lost the game. Or Kapil Dev’s crushing one-run defeat against Haryana in the final of the Ranji Trophy.
But the thing that hurt him the most was the Ranji final for MP in 1999, when he was crying inconsolably after losing to Karnataka. It was his last professional game and he lost. As a coach, he has literally turned the corner, with an unprecedented six Ranji Trophy titles.
Pandit and Aditya Srivastava, by the former’s own admission, share a “special bond”, which goes beyond the professional coach-captain relationship. “It takes sacrifices to reach the top. When Aditya was getting married last year, he came up to me and asked what should be a good time and I told him that I can leave him for the festivities only for a period of two days,” the Pandit said, no. Giving another glimpse of the – crap tough executive that he’s been in for years.
The smiling young captain said, “I got married last year, but I haven’t even taken 10 days off with my wife.” “I told him for success, you need to work hard for a long time. It is like a mission,” quipped the coach.
Pandit was smiling from ear to ear when Pandit Chinnaswamy went to the ground staff of the stadium and asked his entire team to do a photo session with him. “You guys have made an excellent wicket and it’s special because it’s the 100th first-class game at this venue,” he told them and their captain handed over a bunch of 500-rupee notes to a curator.
He has won six Ranji Trophy as a coach – three with his home state Mumbai, two with Vidarbha and now with Madhya Pradesh – which was special to him as his last first-class season was with him. “The first thing I would say to Sir is to laugh out loud. He is very serious about his work and is always ready to talk about cricket whenever he wants.
He is the proverbial man with the magic wand in domestic cricket but the pundits themselves admit that there is a way to his madness. And yes, stay honest and polite. “I have never tried to reach the top and I have always had respect for the game. My coaching principles are based on what I have learned from my three mentors, my first coach Late Ramakant Achrekar, my Mafatlal (office team) captain Late Ashok Mankad and the great Polly Umrigar,” said Pandit.
Pundits understand that young professional cricketers who are becoming professional cricketers in the T20 era will have a tendency to get IPL contracts. Despite being a devotee of red-ball cricket, Pandit as a coach has learned the art of working around the mindset of young players and helping them understand what it means to be successful in Ranji Trophy, and the legacy it can create. Learned the art of connecting.
“There is no point in trying to wean them away from white-ball cricket, but at the same time make them understand that Ranji Trophy is the biggest domestic tournament,” he added. “Even when Venkatesh (Iyer), Avesh (Khan), Rajat (Patidar) and (Kumar) Karthikeya were playing in the IPL, they were in touch with me and regularly talked about my Ranji Trophy preparations,” Pandit said. were.”
He mentioned the immense support received from Madhya Pradesh. Cricket Association (MPCA) gave him a ‘carte blanche’ to govern. The selectors followed the Pandit line and when the Holkar Stadium, which is not the property of the MPCA, was not available for training, the association paid money to book it so that the players would not suffer.
The MPCA President announced a cash reward of Rs 2 crore for the team and there was another round of cheers. He believes that a USP of Pandit is working with teams that “don’t have superstars” because they understand their thought-process well and are ready to surrender to them unconditionally.
No questions asked, no offenses committed and none taken. It does not work in star-studded units, and therefore, large states (except Mumbai) will never get to Pandit, as none will be able to fully meet their demands.
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