navi mumbai: Amol Muzumdar had carried his scars of a “what could have been” for far too long. But not anymore though.
One of the domestic doyens of 1990s, Muzumdar was a rare Mumbai stalwart, who missed out on a coveted Test cap due to presence Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly in that Indian line-up.
As a school cricketer, he remained padded forever as Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli recorded a 664 run stand for Sharadashram Vidyamandir in the Harris Shield final.
But Harmanpreet Kaur’s catch to dismiss Nadine de Klerk was that soothing balm must have had its healing effect on that wound that Muzumdar must have been carrying for years.
“After the catch, I don’t know what happened. The next five minutes was blur. I was here only (in the dugout). I was looking up in the dugout. I was looking up. I didn’t know what (had) happened,” he said during an interaction with a select group of journalists.
He never experienced the highs of an India cricketer but now he is a World Cup winning head coach and we have had only three -- Gary Kirsten, Rahul Dravid and now Amol Muzumdar.
Kapil Dev’s ‘Class of 1983’ didn’t have any national coach as the concept was alien back then and MS Dhoni’s ‘Batch of 2007’ had Lalchand Rajput, who was a stop-gap cricket manager.
“It has not sunk in yet but probably as the days go by, it will sink in. But it’s a surreal feeling,” he said when asked about his reaction to winning the tournament. “Two years have been incredible
with this team.”