From shrugging off a disappointing two-Test career that ended at Lord’s in 1996, to becoming coach and helping India claim the T20 WC, bowling coach Paras Mhambrey’s entire cricketing journey has been fascinating
India’s bowling coach Paras Mhambrey. Pic/Getty Images
Support staff members of teams don’t hit the turf to score runs or take wickets. But they form the vital cog of a team wheel. And if India’s bowling has been showered with kudos for their T20 World Cup win, bowling coach Paras Mhambrey’s role must be acknowledged, just like Vikram Rathour’s contribution to the batting department and fielding coach T Dilip’s efforts.
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I take personal delight in Mhambrey’s success, having seen him grow from a promising fast bowler who emerged from the Ramakant Achrekar cricket stable to representing India at Test level and beyond.
In 1989, Mhambrey joined Sunder Cricket Club for his first taste of ‘A’ division cricket. As manager of the team, I saw our club secretary Hemu Dalvi, who was also Mhambrey’s coach at Jhunjunwala College, asking him to be ready to bat higher in the lower order, when eventual champions Shivaji Park Gymkhana had us reeling through their seasoned fast bowler Nirmal Mhatre (7-14). The 17-year-old Mhambrey went out and resisted for a while before we were bowled out for 47 by the hosts.
Shivaji Park Gymkhana claimed first innings points, but only after Mhambrey’s 7-38 helped bowl them out for 90. Sunder CC just about managed to stay in the premier division amidst stiff competition, but in 1990, Mhambrey with the help of his opening partner Raju Shirke, piloted Sunder CC to a championship triumph. Mhambrey joined the CCI in 1992. It coincided with him being touted as a sure-shot Ranji Trophy player. He had benefitted greatly from the BCA-Mafatlal Bowling Scheme headed by former England pace terror Frank Tyson. I didn’t know Tyson that well to check with him, but I heard he didn’t want Mhambrey to bowl on the rough, uneven Maidan. Fair enough we thought, and took Mhambrey’s departure in our stride.
He had his BCA-Mafatlal Bowling Scheme colleagues Abey Kuruvilla and Salil Ankola for company at CCI. Interestingly, Sunder CC faced the wrath of this CCI attack that very year in the Kanga League. We were demoted after ending up at the bottom of the table, never to return to the premier division.
Mhambrey, meanwhile, made huge strides in domestic cricket and was part of Ravi Shastri’s Ranji Trophy-winning team in 1993-94 as well as Sachin Tendulkar’s championship-winning side the following season.
He was disappointed at missing out on a call up for the home series against New Zealand. “I was a bit disappointed when my name did not figure in the list. But then, I thought everything happens for the best. That means I still have to get more wickets,” Mhambrey told this newspaper then. A few months later, he was picked in Mohammed Azharuddin’s 1996 team to England, making his Test debut in the opening Test at Birmingham. After Javagal Srinath’s 52, Mhambrey was the second highest top-scorer with 28 in India’s first innings. Apart from getting Michael Atherton, the England captain, caught by Rathour at second slip, Mhambrey didn’t have anything to show in the wickets column. Commentators Geoff Boycott and Tony Lewis were impressed with the way Mhambrey got the ball in the right spot to tempt Atherton into the drive. He was not bowled in the second innings and although Mhambrey retained his place in the XI for the next Test at Lord’s, he claimed only one wicket. End of Test career. Wisden called him an “inadequate third seamer.”
Tyson, who visited Mumbai in October that year, had an explanation as to why Mhambrey did not hit the high notes in England. He told me at The Oval Maidan: “Mhambrey has the ability to move the ball away at a swift pace. But someone comes and tells him that your actual role is to fill in between Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad and restrict the scoring. As a result, he did not bowl anything like he should have. It was an absolute waste because he’s a far better bowler.”
Mhambrey continued to be a domestic toiler and was handed the Mumbai captaincy for the 2002-03 season. The 2001-02 pre-quarter final loss to Tamil Nadu when he was stand-in captain for Sameer Dighe, caused a storm. Mhambrey took fresh guard in 2002-03 and Mumbai ended up winning the Ranji title by beating Tamil Nadu in the final at Wankhede Stadium on May 8, 2003. Later that month Mhambrey asked the Dilip Vengsarkar-led selection committee not to consider him for Mumbai. He stopped at 284 wickets in 91 first-class games. Coaching was his next career. The decision to end his playing career was not an easy one. He admitted to me that he had endured a few sleepless nights. “I cannot go on playing. I don’t want to be a liability in the team. There is a good amount of fast bowlers and I want to help those guys,” he said. By July 2003, he was helping his mentor Tyson conduct Level 2 coaching courses at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
Mhambrey has spent a good 21 years in the coaching sphere and along the way, has helped rookies and thoroughbreds across all levels of the game and formats.
His season-ball cricketing journey started at Shivaji Park, where his father Laxmikant took him to be coached after Mhambrey Jr was done with his SSC examinations. His school, Our Lady of Salvation, Dadar, had no cricket team, but Mhambrey excelled in tennis-ball cricket on the streets near his Worli residence. Laxmikant told me on Wednesday how he discovered his son bowling on the streets when he returned home from work early one evening. He should have been cross with him because he had not yet completed his homework. But Laxmikant saw a spark and left it to Achrekar to turn it into a flame.
Laxmikant, 90, is an extremely proud man today. He is also delighted for skipper Rohit Sharma, who he felt so bad for after India lost the ODI World Cup final to Australia last year.
India’s bowling coach will return after a long Caribbean journey to a rousing welcome today. And the car drive to his parents’ home in Kharghar one of these days, to catch up with his old man, will be an emotional one.
mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello
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The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper
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