OPINION
Follow Us“It is not what you want to achieve that people remember you for, it is what you do that matters. Excuses wouldn’t help”
As Aditya Tare’s Mumbai team gathered at the DRIEMS Cricket Ground in Cuttack, in early 2015 ahead of their quarter-finals against Delhi, a beaming voice made their presence known. Chandrakant Pandit, the then Mumbai coach, had a clear warning for his players before delving into the strategy.
You don’t need to know the context of the speech to figure out the Pandit philosophy of coaching. His players love him and are afraid of him in equal measure but maintain a level of respect that not many coaches can claim to have in Indian domestic cricket.
Pandit’s philosophy of coaching is traditional in many ways. You ask him a thousand questions, he would be there for you each time, but wouldn’t be the real kind man to placate you if the execution is far off. Thus when he was appointed Madhya Pradesh’s coach in 2020 after historically turning the leaf in Vidarbha horizon, it was a choice that was looked at with keen interest.
And boy, has that reaped some excellent dividends?
In his first full season with Madhya Pradesh, the former Indian keeper has fuelled the rather domestic backwaters to a new echelon, helming them to the Ranji Trophy final for the first time since 1998-99 season. It is still unfinished business for Pandit and his wards with Mumbai lurking out of the window to secure their 42nd title, but if the Vidarbha stint had taught us anything, Pandit would be relishing the opportunity to take the bull by its horns.
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In a previous column, we had delved into how Madhya Pradesh have staked claim to having a pool of players challenging the oligarch of Mumbai, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu with many new-age players finding their feet in the IPL milieu. Starting from establishing turf wickets in every district to ramping up the number of camps that were being conducted to ensuring talented cricketers get a go at the academy in Indore, the change was systematic and encouraging. Pandit’s induction to the set-up coincided with the change. He just had to pull the notes from the drawer and execute the ideas.
In the semi-final encounter, when thrown against a side that had just made its way into the history books, Madhya Pradesh didn’t flinch. It was easy to get intimidated by the stoic presence of Manoj Tiwary or the determination of Shahbaz Ahmed, but like they have done throughout the season, Madhya Pradesh chose to play percentage cricket. No flashiness, focusing on the other end, and calmly ticking the scoreboard.
Take Kumar Kartikeya as a case in point. Fresh from a six-wicket haul against Punjab in the quarters, Kartikeya was thrown against a side that play spinners for fun. From the likes of Manoj Tiwary to Shahbaz Ahmed, from Anustup Majumdar to Abhimanyu Easwaran, all are terrific players of spin, but he fizzled them out, just by focusing on the basics. In many ways, it was reminiscent of how Vidarbha’s unfancied Akshay Karnewar used to work over the opposition in their consecutive Championship run.
Also, for Pandit, this would be another opportunity to fill a wound of 23 years. In 1998-99, Pandit led Madhya Pradesh to the final, only to come short against Karnataka thanks to the rampant run of Vijay Bharadwaj and Sunil Joshi. As a player for Mumbai, Pandit had won many accolades, but the inspiring wind of change that he had cultivated in unfancied Madhya Pradesh as a professional cricketer was surreal. The kind of success at the fag end of your career that makes you happy.
23 years later, the irony couldn’t have been more revealing. It is the same Chinnaswamy Stadium that would greet Madhya Pradesh, albeit a different opposition in Mumbai. Mumbai would know, quite ironically, that since Pandit’s departure to Vidarbha in 2017, they are not the same all-conquering side anymore.
A lot of stories and plots would drive the narrative but as always, it is the intense look of Pandit that would tell their boys not to celebrate a bit early. Because “it is not what you want to achieve that people remember you for, it is what you do that matters.”
