What'll you do with prize money? Chandrakant Pandit to VCA before Ranji season

Vidarbha players celebrate with their coach Chandrakant Pandit after winning the Ranji Trophy final cricket match against Delhi by 9 wickets in Indore on Monday PicPTISpurring a bunch of underdogs to Indias biggest prize in domestic cricket is no small task but so confident was Vidarbha coach Chandrakant Pandit that he had made inquiries about rewards for the improbable feat at the very start of the Ranji season After winning their maiden Ranji Trophy following five decades of trying Vidarbha Cricket Association VCA vicepresident Prashant Vaidya recalled the time when Pandit after being signed up last season asked what they would do with the prize moneySurprised the VCA official had asked Pandit what prize money was he referring to The one for the Ranji Trophy winners replied the multipletime winning coach That was so confident of him that this man was already thinking of winning the trophy so I thought Vidarbha is definitely going to have a good season I started believing on the first day he Pandit came to Nagpur Vaidya said after the ninewicket win over Delhi in the title clash hereSeated beside Vaidya was Pandit who has an enviable record as coach in firstclass cricket The former India player as coach has won the title thrice reached the final four times The lone defeat to Gujarat in last seasons final was enough for Mumbai to show him the doorMumbais loss turned out to be Vidarbhas gain Having been a part of so many of Mumbais triumphant campaigns both as a player and coach Pandit knew what it would take to win I have always been thinking about the achievement Everybody wants to win the title but I think this win will not only change the team it will also have an impact on the youngsters The players of 14 or 16 years can also raise their hands and say that I can win Thats the kind of culture I would be happy to achieve in Vidarbha the 56yearold Pandit said A hard taskmaster Pandit has his own ways to operate and doesnt like interferencesWe have been following our routine and thats the best part we have done All credit goes to the players as they have put in the hard work I am very happy with the way they have respected me and the players have never ignored the system we have followed That is one of the major things The team is together they have started enjoying the sessions We stayed together all the time and there were certain kinds of activities in the team Thats a fantastic thing Pandit praised the support staff for helping him immensely in the endeavour When you dont do well people say there is no unity in the side Thats not the case Support staff is equallyhelping Bowling coach Subroto Banerjee has been of great supportSee the performance of fast bowlers especially Rajneesh Gurbani that has helped Wasim Jaffer Satish have been role models Today youngsters like Akshay Wadkar have performed because players like Faiz Fazal have passed on positive energy in the dressing room We are grooming them also We have been talking to Prashant regularly about team combination he emphasised Pandit said some performances took him by surprise Look at Aditya Thakare I was not too convincedinitially but Prashant convinced me I was thinking whether VCA will make or break him But now the U19 boy is now a part of history and he will always remember it he saidMaking his firstclass debut Thakare who is a standby in Indias U19 World Cup squad picked up a wicket in the matchs first overCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go