Meet Pravin Muley, former Vidarbha U-14 coach, who travels 550 km every week from Akola to Thane, specially to coach budding cricketers
Pravin Muley
Mumbai's maidans have proved to be breeding grounds for many cricketers, who travel far and wide to hone their skills in the city of dreams. But seldom would you hear of a cricket coach taking the longer route to success.
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Meet Pravin Muley, a former Vidarbha U-14 coach, who travels around 550km every week from his home in Akola, to specially coach budding cricketers in the Mumbai-Thane region. Muley has previously nurtured India U-19 cricketers Aditya Thakare, Atharva Taide and Darshan Nalkande from Akola.
Coach Pravin Muley (second from left) supervises a young batsman's straight drive at the Sulakshan Kulkarni Academy in Thane’s Panch Pakhdi area on Thursday. Pic/Sameer Markande
Nine-hour journey begins
Muley, 50, begins his week on Sunday night (8:30pm), by boarding the Amravati-CSTM Express from Akola which arrives the next morning (5:30am) in Thane. He heads to the Sulakshan Kulkarni Academy in Thane's Panch Pakhdi area where he coaches U-14 and U-19 kids for the next four days — both in the morning and evening (three-hour sessions). On Thursday night, Muley leaves for Akola and arrives right in time for his Friday morning session at the Akola Cricket Club (ACC) ground. He trains here for the next three days — again, mornings and evenings. This is Muley's year-round schedule.
Sulakshan Kulkarni
He admits it's tiring, but it totally satiates his appetite for coaching . "Yes, it is tiring, but I thoroughly enjoy it. I see a lot of talent in Mumbai and being a coach, it is a big opportunity for me to help them. I want to help [former Mumbai Ranji wicketkeeper] Sulakshan sir in his goal to establish a solid base for Mumbai's youngsters which will help them flourish at all levels," Muley, a BCCI Level 1 coach, told mid-day at the Thane academy on Thursday.
Muley is grateful to Kulkarni for teaching him the tricks of the trade during their respective coaching stints with the Vidarbha teams in 2009. Kulkarni, the then U-19 coach, while Muley guided the U-14 batch. Even during his Vidarbha camp days, Muley always harboured dreams of coaching in Mumbai.
'Kulkarni taught me a lot'
“I learnt a lot while interacting with Sulakshan sir at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur. Ever since I began playing in Vidarbha and later, coaching, Mumbai cricket has impressed me. I always wanted to coach kids here,” added Muley, who also coaches the IES (Mulund) school cricket team in Thane.
Kulkarni, well known for his scouting skills, is happy to have spotted a talented coach for a change. “Pravin is very passionate about his coaching. When I was coaching the Vidarbha U-19 team, I observed that he has a knack of extracting output from kids after building a solid foundation. I wanted such a coach to look after my boys,” said Kulkarni, who also coached the 2013 Ranji Trophy-winning Mumbai side. Vidarbha's Cooch Behar Trophy-winning U-19 captain Taide swears by Muley's training methods.
Muley sir is too good: Taide
“Muley sir began coaching Aditya, Darshan and myself when we were just seven or eight. Those four to five years under him helped us build a solid foundation. He's just too good,” said Taide, who scored a match-winning 320 in the Cooch Behar final against Madhya Pradesh at Nagpur in January.
Six
No. of hours Muley trains students in Thane daily
Also Read: Mumbai Cyclist Travels 80,000 Km To Help Millions
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