Amol Muzumdar’s rise, from a Mumbai run-machine to playing a role in masterminding one of Indian cricket’s finest triumphs as head coach of the women’s team, puts him on a high pedestal
India head coach Amol Muzumdar poses with the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Trophy after the hosts beat South Africa in the final at the Dr DY Patil Stadium last Sunday. PIC/ATUL KAMBLE
Coaches don’t score runs. Don’t claim wickets. Pouch no catches either. They have no control over what happens on the field of play. Yet, they are hailed or ridiculed after triumphs or disasters. And for good reason, because they play a key role in strategising and charting out plans to plot the opposition’s downfall.
The latest example of a head coach getting kudos is Amol Muzumdar. The former Mumbai captain, who is second on the list of run-getters in Ranji Trophy history with 9202 runs (behind Wasim Jaffer’s 12038) found his calling in coaching and has been the women’s team coach since 2023.
Among his several coaching assignments, this one has brought him everlasting fame. This has thrilled his admirers and vindicated all those who had no doubts that he had the cricketing nous to forge winning combinations in teams he coached.
The sea got choppy at the World Cup. At one stage, India lost three games on the bounce — to South Africa, Australia and England.
India’s victorious captain Harmanpreet Kaur indicated after Sunday’s triumph that Muzumdar read the riot act post the inexplicable loss to England and one can imagine how straight-talking Muzumdar would have been at Indore following the four-run loss.
The outside noise was palpable. Australia’s overall World Cup domination notwithstanding, it was India’s cup to win on home turf. Muzumdar may have been only one of the factors to spark the flames of revival, but it’s safe to say it was a big one.
Revivals he has seen aplenty. Domestic cricket’s battle-scarred veteran started his first-class journey at a time when Mumbai turned the corner post an eight-season lull (1985-86 to 1992-93) in the Ranji Trophy. He felt he should have played first-class cricket earlier than 1993-94. But when he got his chance in the pre-quarter-final against Haryana at Faridabad of that season, he pitched his tent for a big innings.
Walking in to bat at 47-2, the 19-year-old middle-order batsman went on to carve 260 on debut. Mumbai ended up becoming champions and Muzumdar became a regular to the point of him being talked about as an India probable.
He didn’t get that much-sought-after Test cap, but he learnt his lessons from some of the finest to wear Test colours. Before his first Ranji Trophy captain Ravi Shastri, there was Sandeep Patil, the erstwhile India dasher, who led Muzumdar at Cricket Club of India and SunGrace Mafatlal.
Muzumdar told me during my Mumbai cricket podcast how he looked up to Patil as an inspiration, as a mentor. He took on board Patil’s well-meaning yet irksome challenge before Muzumdar’s Times Shield ‘A’ division debut for SunGrace Mafatlal in 1992: “Anybody can get a hundred. Make a double hundred and show me.” A determined Muzumdar had a point to prove, but he was dismissed by Western Railway’s off-spinner Hitesh Popat for 97. Muzumdar recalled Patil saying on his tearful return to the dressing room, “Dum nahin hain… kya karega?”
In 16 months’ time, Muzumdar got the chance to prove Patil wrong with that 260.
Muzumdar appreciated the fact that he learnt the hard way from “hard-nosed cricketers.” Patil was one. Shastri was another. Karsan Ghavri, the Mumbai team manager in 1993-94, also fell into that category, and so did Dilip Vengsarkar and Kenia Jayantilal, his senior at MB Union CC, Cross Maidan.
Shastri sent Muzumdar a message five days before his debut that he would be in the playing XI and would bat at No. 4. When the going got tough on the turning Faridabad track, Shastri walked up to him and said, “The first ton is always the hardest to get, so stay there and get it no matter how long it takes. Don’t throw it away.”
Back to the women’s World Cup. India’s mid-tournament turbulence could well have resulted in disaster. But the team and head coach walked the talk where belief was concerned. There were inspirational figures within the team. There was ability. There was optimism, which admittedly can be hard to embrace in a crisis. And there was the magical aspect of sport where the amalgamation of ability, spirit, and confidence meets destiny. That came to the fore in the recent semi-final against Australia, where India pulled off an incredible win.
The coach, in his own way, knew that the best team in the world could be conquered.
Apart from being part of eight Mumbai Ranji Trophy triumphs, he was in a Mumbai team that demolished Australia by 10 wickets inside three days in the visitors’ tour game on their 1997-98 tour of India. During his innings of 42 then, he smashed Shane Warne for three fours and the master leg-spinner was reminded of that sequence when both were involved as part of the coaching roster at Rajasthan Royals.
Muzumdar has come a long way since his 260 for Bombay in 1993-94 made him the highest individual scorer on debut in first-class cricket.
There were highs, lows, controversies, self-doubt, and the urge to give up the game in 2002. His father Anil allowed him to entertain those thoughts, but insisted he live up to his club commitment in England.
The opening of a gate at his UK accommodation after the drive from Manchester airport gave him the feeling that the gate to a new chapter of his cricketing life was opening too through the Bishop Auckland CC stint. It did, and he played 12 more years of first-class cricket before retiring in 2013-14.
A gate has probably opened again for Muzumdar to enjoy and soak in the fact that you don’t have to play for your country to be part of a historic moment in your country’s sporting history.
mid-day’s Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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