For far too long, Amol Muzumdar had carried the scars of a “what could have been” with him. But that is no longer the case.
Due to the presence of greats like Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly in the middle order, Muzumdar, a rare Mumbai veteran and one of the domestic doyens of the 1990s, was denied a coveted Test cap.
As a schoolboy cricketer, he spent an entire innings padded up, watching from the sidelines as Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli piled up a record 664-run stand for Sharadashram Vidyamandir in the Harris Shield final.
But when Harmanpreet Kaur held on to that catch to dismiss Nadine de Klerk in the World Cup final, it must have felt like a healing touch — a soothing balm on the old wound Amol Muzumdar had carried for decades.
“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.
After Gary Kirsten and Rahul Dravid, he is the third head coach in Indian cricket history to win a World Cup, while never having tasted the highs of being an Indian cricketer.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s “Batch of 2007” had Lalchand Rajput, a temporary cricket manager, while Kapil Dev’s “Class of 1983” lacked a national coach because the idea was alien at that time.
“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.”
This team was unique since they supported one another.
“Two years have been incredible with this team. They’re all together all the time. We back each other. You’ll see, nobody leaves in anyone’s back and it’s been fantastic to work with such talented group of players,” he said when asked about his two-year stint with the Indian side.
As a player, Muzumdar was a classic “Khadoos Mumbaikar,” and he didn’t dispute that the team’s strategy was influenced by him.
“Whatever inputs I can give, whatever experience I do have, I love to share it always with them. I don’t hold back from sharing certain things, so whether that you may call it an imprint, but it’s just the experience that I share,” he said.
According to Muzumdar, he advised the team not to interpret their three consecutive losses too strongly.
“I kept telling (the team) that we have not lost the game; we just were not able to just cross the line. We were competitive in those matches, we were very close in beating South Africa, Australia, and England,” he said.
“We just were not able to cross the line, but post that, what grit and determination girls have shown, has just been phenomenal in beating New Zealand in a virtual quarterfinals, then semifinals against Australia and then now again, South Africa in the finals. Unbelievable,” he said.
The hardest choice he had to make as a coach over the past six weeks was to bring in all-rounder Amanjot Kaur for Jemimah Rodrigues in the England match in Indore.
“To be very honest, we were absolutely clear that if we want to have six bowling options at a certain time then we will have to sacrifice one batter,” Muzumdar told the media after India’s win in the final over South Africa.
“We were very clear about that so whoever, whether it was Harleen or whether it was Jemimah, we were clear about it. Six bowling option, one batter misses out — somebody has to make way to some for someone to come in.”
Shafali Verma’s inclusion from outside the group of 15 squad members and six reserves was acknowledged by Muzumdar as “a sudden change,” underscoring the selection conundrum caused by the abundance of possibilities.
“Maybe it appears from outside, it’s a sudden change, but we were clear about it and Shafali was a sudden change I would say. Nobody expected Pratika (Rawal) to get injured, but if things happen and that itself tells, if you look at a positive way, it shows that a player as good as Shafali was not finding a place in the (squad of) 15. So there you go, but she came and played a magical game,” he added.
Regarding the legacy, Muzumdar thinks the victory will mark a fresh start for women’s cricket in the country.
“It’s a watershed moment in Indian cricket, not just women’s cricket. You must have seen, stadium khacha-khach bhara hua tha (the stadium was jam-packed). I don’t know how many crores of people must have watched on the television,” he said.
“I’m sure from there, some of them must have got inspired. You never know. Like 1983 (India’s maiden World Cup win), it inspired a lot of cricketers in that generation. You never know. I just met a little girl; three or four-years-old, whose inspiration is Harman. She follows Harman wherever she goes, so there you go,” Muzumdar added.
