Eighteen years after playing his last game for India (vs Sri Lanka in Sharjah), Vinod Kambli has entered the coaching fray
Vinod Kambli (centre) during the launch of his coaching nets at Bandra Kurla Complex yesterday. Pic/Prakash Parsekar
Eighteen years after playing his last game for India (vs Sri Lanka in Sharjah), Vinod Kambli has entered the coaching fray. Kambli, 45, kicked off his new innings yesterday when he began coaching the children of Mumbai Cricket Association Recreation Centre's members at Bandra (East). He was quick to remember the days when he was coached by Ramakant Achrekar at Shivaji Park. "Like a lot of coaches, Achrekar sir too used to say that practice makes a man perfect. But sir's thinking was different. He used to also say that perfect practice makes one perfect and so all of sir's students used to have perfect practice. I would like to follow sir's guru mantra," said Kambli.
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However, coaching is quite different from playing and Kambli had no hesitation in viewing his latest activity as a challenge. "I've always enjoyed challenges. My main aim is to drill into the youngsters the importance of Test cricket. All youngsters should think big and the biggest part of the game is Test cricket," he added.
So what led Kambli to the coaching sphere? "I met Sachin (Tendulkar) recently and he asked me, 'Vinod, why don't you start coaching?' You can say that he has shown me the path and I've just got to walk on it. I am very grateful to him and MCA for giving me this platform. All I can say is that I will not let Sachin down," Kambli remarked.
Kambli played 17 Tests and scored 1084 runs at an average of 54.20. He represented India in 104 ODIs which included two World Cups.
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