Coach Chandrakant Pandit shares tricks of trade with young cricketers

Coaches are known to closely guard their strategies but Indias most celebrated domestic cricket coach Chandrakant Pandit is different He was only too happy to share his success mantra and discuss his coaching methods in the latest edition of midday Masterclass a unique platform for aspiring athletes to learn the finer points of the game straight from the masterIn an insightful session held at the MIG Cricket Club in Bandra on Thursday Pandit spoke at length about how his unique methods have helped transform Vidarbha into domestic champions across the last two seasons where they won both the Ranji Trophy as well as Irani CupAlso ReadMumbai cricket teams fall down to one administrator Chandrakant PanditExcerptsTwo consecutive Ranji Trophy and Irani Cup titles with Vidarbha and before that two backtoback Ranji Trophy final appearances with Mumbai What are you doing that no other coach in India isI am fortunate to enjoy this kind of success I must thank the cricketers for giving me this identity Its the players who make a coach It is not success it is just what a professional is asked to deliver every time I have always thought about the cricketing culture of states When you talk of Mumbai they have a different cricket culture Every state has a different culture and habits So as a coach one has to find out what arena they like to play their cricket in and what are their expectations With Mumbai you dont need to teach them the culture because that is already present Players who have grown up in the Mumbai cricket circle are already taught that they play to win That is the attitude Coaching is very important because other than developing the players skills and technique it is also about how you raise the bar for them One has to know the players their temperament and what ability they haveWhere were Vidarbha lacking before you took over the reinsMany people ask me what I have done with them Vidarbha I say I have done nothing as a coach I just told them that we are playing to win the trophy It is about the mindset When I spoke to them in my first team meeting I asked them why they have not won in the last 80 years And the first answer I got was Sir we have qualified for the knockout round only twice The mindset of the players was to just qualify They were not thinking beyond that With a team like Mumbai theyd never think of just qualifying If Mumbai have not won the Ranji Trophy it means their season has been bad But in other states their season is very good if they just qualify I found there were three groups one group was thinking of playing at the highest level The other was happy with just qualifying for the knockout round and the third group was satisfied with 30 40 runs or three or fourwicket performances I had to break that and bring them on one platform The right mindset is the keyYou are known to be a disciplinarian but also flexible in your approach How do you manage thatI am very balanced in my actions One evening you will find me going berserk with the boys but the next morning they could be sitting with me on the breakfast table I balance it that way Many a time a player has lost his confidence Once when I was sitting in a selection meeting in Nagpur the selectors mentioned a few names they felt might not play for Vidarbha anymore They asked me not to consider those players but I must mention the support I got from Prashant Vaidya VCA vicepresident After a few net sessions I saw their potential and would wonder why they are not being promoted There were two players in the current Vidarbha team Apoorv Wankhade and Akshay Karnewar They were known to be shorter format players but I was very keen to play them in the longer version I wanted to build their confidence I called Wankhade a month before the season began and told him that he will play in my team He was shocked He thought I was joking because for the last four years he was not in the team and here I was telling him that he was going to play I told him that I believed in his talent and that I would give him minimum six chances because I was confident that he could win us the Ranji Trophy I did not even tell him about winning a match Karnewar ambidextrous spinner was also shocked when I told him that he is going to play ahead of leftarm spinner Aditya Sarwate I told him that hes the best bowler of this team I gave him confidence and probably he was just waiting for this opportunity He comes from a small district and did not even have the selfconfidence to talk It is important to give players confidence but at the same time one has to ensure he does not get overconfident The player should also know that he cannot take his place for granted I give a lot of time to my players There are coaches who do not communicate with their players after a practice sessionTell us about your manmanagement skillsWe have to create a platform where there is one mindset Sometimes we have to give players some responsibility as well We formed different committees in the Vidarbha team It helps me to keep the bunch together The responsibility that they take through these activities helps them on the field as well We have a food committee entertainment committee discipline committee ground and travel committee There is a leader for each committee There are also problems at times where as a coach I may not get into directly Young players may feel free to express their problems with senior players like Wasim Jaffer Ganesh Satish and Faiz Fazal Vidarbha captain So through these senior players I get a clue of what a certain player is thinking or what is his problemCan you elaborate on your coaching methodsThat is another quality one coach should learn I constantly think about how to raise the bar for a player As a coach sometimes the player may not feel comfortable when I am trying to give him a suggestion So the same thing can be done through someone else Once Wankhade was in Mumbai and was low on confidence I was to meet former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar We were in a car and Vengsarkar spoke about how he should pace his innings handle the bowlers and how his talent can be utilised So whatever I wanted to tell him came from Dilip and it made a lot of difference to his approach He gained a lot of confidence Once when I was with Mumbai I had requested Sachin Tendulkar to speak to a player after telling him about his problem So after the phone call from Sachin the player did not have second thoughts The player was ready to do what was told This is how a coach can use different sources to influence players It is not necessary for everything to come only from you coach It can come from a friend a cricketer a parentWere you upset to see Mumbai lose to VidarbhaYes of course Its not just my team as coach It is also the team I played for and because of which I went on to play for my country I coached the Mumbai team and it hurts because it is your family your home But when you are on the other side you cant do anything about it When Vidarbha beat Mumbai at Jamtha I felt very sad because it was the same team I was handling a few years ago Winning and losing is a part of the game but I was disappointed not to see that culture in the Mumbai dressing roomAny chance of coming back to MumbaiIm committed to Vidarbha for two seasons Till now I have not thought about it returning to coach Mumbai but I will definitely give it a thought when the time comesWith inputs from Clayton Murzello Ashwin Ferro and Sundari IyerCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates