Renowned cricket coach Chandrakant Pandit turned emotional when his team Madhya Pradesh clinched the maiden Ranji Trophy title on Sunday. Aditya Shrivastava & Co defeated 41-time champion Mumbai by 6 wickets to script history at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
This was the sixth Ranji title for Pandit as a coach. Under his guidance, Mumbai won the coveted trophy thrice while Vidharbha pocketed it two times in a row. However, the recent win in Bengaluru was the most special because he himself couldn’t win as the Madhya Pradesh captain, back in 1998. The team had lost the final to Karnataka by 98 runs.
Despite being such an impactful coach in the Indian domestic circuit, Pandit never featured in the Indian Premier League (IPL). In a recent interaction with news agency PTI, he revealed why chose not to get associated with the T20 league.
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“Agar phone karunga, toh kuch mil jayega par who mera style kabi thaa nahi (If approach any IPL, I will get something but that’s not my style),” he had told PTI.
Pandit revealed about meeting Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) principal owner and Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan back in 2012. But he had his own reasons to express his disinterest.
“I met Mr Shah Rukh Khan back then but somehow I couldn’t bring myself to work under a foreign coach,” he had said on that day.
Pandit ages above 60 and won’t be considered for the job of any national team’s coaching assignment. But Pandit has no qualms.
“Every trophy gives satisfaction but this one is special. I couldn’t do it as an MP captain years back (23 years). All these years, I have always felt that I had left something back over here. That’s the reason I am a bit more excited and emotional about it,” he added.
Pandit has seen heartbreaks as a player – his best Test knock of 39 came in the famous tied Test against Australia at Chepauk. Then, he was well set on 24 in the World Cup semi-final versus England at the Wankhede Stadium in 1987, but India lost the game.
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