Things you may have not know about birthday boy Sandeep Patil

Sandeep Madhusudan Patil celebrates his 60th birthday today On the occasion of his birthday here are some interesting facts about the Indian chairman of selectors that you may not know about Sandeep Patilrsquos parents Madhusudan and Sumitra were mixed doubles champions on the local badminton circuit Sandeep revealed in his autobiography Sandy Storm that badminton was his first love and he played a lot of games with his sister AshaSandeep Patil deep in thought His father Madhusudan played Ranji Trophy cricket for Mumbai then Bombay He was an attacking batsman and used to lead Shivaji Park Gymkhana His coach Anna Vaidya worked out a way to force him to face the quick bowlers who he ran away from Vaidya tied a rope to his right leg and held it in his hand When the young batsman wanted to get away from the line Anna would pull the rope so Sandeep had no option but to face the ball He got more wickets than runs in his Ranji Trophy debut against Hyderabad in 1976 He was dismissed for a duck by offspinner V Ramnarayan and didnrsquot bat in the second innings Patil claimed four wickets while partnering Abdul Ismail In his younger days he was fascinated by Gray Nicolls bats but at the international level he endorsed Symonds bats His first two victims in Ranji Trophy cricket were Test cricketers ndash S Abid Ali and ML Jaisimha He was a big Beatles and Bob Marley fan On his current tour of the West Indies he visited the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston JamaicaAnna Vaidya who coached Test player Sandeep Patil Before heading for his first tour of Australia in 198081 famous coach Vasu Paranjape is believed to have told Patil ldquoYou watch Dennis Lillee for the first half an hour and for the next five and a half hours hersquoll be watching yourdquo In a naughty mood on the 1982 tour of England he informed the stewards at Lordrsquos to check the credentials of a person who will say he is an India player before they let him through the gates before the Test As it happened the player was stopped by the stewards before they realised it was a prank In 1983 he managed to inform journalists who were covering the India vs West Indies Test at Chennai that the Nirlon cricket team which was in the city for a tournament would present Sunil Gavaskar for crossing Don Bradmanrsquos tally of 29 Test tons A few media persons gathered at the Nirlon team hotel where Patil presented the little master with a miniature car Patil first played interoffice cricket for Century Rayon before moving on to Tatas Nirlon and SunGrace Mafatlal Rs 30 was his first salary at Century Rayon He is a dog lover and has six Labradors Lucky Shasha Bob Boss Zara and Ice live at his farmhouse in Chowk near Panvel At Chowk he has built a makebelieve railway station called Patilwadi which has rails and a platformSandeep Patil batting against Australia on the 198081 tour Down Under In the 1980s he had a 30feet wingspan lsquoQuell Commanderrsquo plane on the terrace of his Shivaji Park dwelling It was later converted into a bar His attacking batting on the 1982 tour of England was appreciated by political and cricket writer CLR James He was famous for his shrewd captaincy in local and domestic cricket Sunil Gavaskar let him lead the Nirlon team and later on he captained a future legend at SunGrace Mafatlal ndash Sachin Tendulkar He loves to cook and can be spotted at Mahimrsquos Citylight buying fishSandeep Patil interacts with fisherwoman at Dadar fish market PicSuresh KK He once criticised Kapil Dev in his editorial for Shatkar magazine which he edited even when he was playing for India While on a holiday in Mahableshwar he got teammate Karsan Ghavrito visit a fortune teller who told Ghavri about his past and future Ghavri was impressed when the fortune teller told him that he played for India after he had switched states but the fact was that Patil had briefed the fortune teller about Ghavris past He loved to tease teammate Dilip Doshi During a game on the 1982 tour of England he got Doshis entire bat autographed At an airport during Indias 198283 tour of Pakistan he hid late journalist Rajan Balas brand new typewriterSandeep Patil at a local cricket prize distribution function during his playing days His coach Ankush Anna Vaidya is to his right He handled the press with aplomb Once a senior journalist wanted to know the status of his leg injury Hows the leg Sandeep he asked before Sandeep shot back its hairy Sachin Tendulkar used to get a lift from Patil to matches in his younger days and loved the then India batting stars Contessa car