Ramakant Achrekar
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Contents |
A brief biography
Achrekar, the man who made Sachin, leaves field forever, January 3, 2019: The Times of India
From: Achrekar, the man who made Sachin, leaves field forever, January 3, 2019: The Times of India
From: Achrekar, the man who made Sachin, leaves field forever, January 3, 2019: The Times of India
Sachin Tendulkar’s coach Ramakant Achrekar famously drove the curly-haired child prodigy on his scooter from one maidan to the other in the 1980s so that the boy could bat in as many matches as possible in a day.
The coach, 87, had been battling age-related ailments for a long time, and his condition had worsened over the past three days.
Vinod Kambli, Ajit Agarkar, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Pravin Amre, Chandrakant Pandit, Lalchand Rajput, Paras Mhambrey, Sameer Dighe and Ramesh Powar also went on to play for India after learning the ropes from the golf cap-sporting, avuncular coach at his Shiva-ji Park nets.
He taught us the virtues of playing straight & living straight: Sachin
The first cricketer from the Achrekar stable to play for India was Ramnath Parkar, who made his debut against England in 1972 as Sunil Gavaskar’s opening partner. Other notables were Amol Muzumdar and Naresh Churi, who made a name for themselves in domestic cricket.
Tendulkar, who regularly visited Achrekar’s residence, was profuse in his praise for his departed guru. “Cricket in heaven will be enriched with the presence of Achrekar sir. Like many of his students, I learnt my ABCD of cricket under Sir’s guidance,” Tendulkar, who rushed to Achrekar’s home on hearing the news, said in his statement.
“His contribution to my life cannot be captured in words. He built the foundation that I stand on. Last month, I met Sir along with some of his students and spent some time together. We shared a laugh as we remembered the old times. Achrekar sir taught us the virtues of playing straight and living straight. Thank you for making us a part of your life and enriching us with your coaching manual. Well played Sir and may you coach more wherever you are.”
Achrekar, who is survived by two daughters, worked for long with the State Bank of India. Former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar recalled Achrekar’s unselfish ways as a coach. “He coached underprivileged kids without expecting anything in return. His contribution has been amazing,” said Vengsarkar.
There are numerous stories about the manner in which Achrekar, a winner of the Dronacharya and Padma Shri awards, coached his students, but the one that has stood out is his famous ‘late-cut,’ revealed by Tendulkar a few years ago.
As he took a trip down memory lane, Tendulkar revealed, “After finishing school, I used to hurry to my aunt’s place for lunch and by that time, sir used to organise some matches for me. He used to tell the opposition that I would bat at No. 4. On one such day, instead of playing, I went to the Wankhede stadium to watch the Shardashram boys in the Harris Shield final to cheer our team.
“There, we spotted sir. He knew that I had missed the match, but still asked me how I performed. I told him that I thought that I would skip the match in order to cheer for our team. I got a late-cut (tight slap) on my face! The tiffin box in my hand flew and all its contents spread across. Sir told me ‘You don’t have to be here to cheer for others. Play in such a way that others cheer for you.’’ Since that day, I began practising very hard and put in a lot of hours. If not for that day, I might have been cheering others,” he said.
A KEEN EYE FOR DETAIL
The Test vs England in February 1993 at Wankhede is remembered fondly by Shardashram, Vidyamandir students, for three ex-students were in the playing XI — Tendulkar, Kambli and Pravin Amre. When Tendulkar and Kambli were putting on a match-winning partnership on Day Three, the cameras hunted for Achrekar, who was nowhere to be found. The coach was instead across the street at Cross Maidan, where Shardashram English and Marathi were contesting the Harris Shield final. He did managed to see a few overs of the Test, though, and after stumps called the two for a dressing down. Achrekar asked Kambli, “Don’t you know where your offstump is?” Kambli went on to score 224!
COINS THAT MOTIVATED
At the Shardashram nets towards late evening, Achrekar used to give his favourite ward, Sachin Tendulkar, a new challenge. In fading light, after the 13-year-old had been exhausted facing bowlers for almost an hour, he used to place a one rupee coin on top of the offstump and tell the bowlers, “I will give it to anyone who gets Sachin out.” It was a challenge that most bowlers failed and the proof of that is the number of those coins that Sachin has in his possession. That they still occupy pride of place in his trophy cabinet shows how stiff the challenge was for the bowlers!
DRIVEN TO GROOM TOP TALENT
Once, Achrekar got excited upon seeing a talented youngster play tennis-ball cricket in Chembur and landed at his house at 12.30 in the night. The idea was to convince the boy’s reluctant father to change his son’s school so that he could focus on cricket. Realizing that the father was continuing to maintain that his son would be better off studying, Achrekar did something which left the father stunned and embarrassed. “It’s difficult to believe this, but sir took out Rs 1000 from his pocket — which in 1978 was a big amount — and told my father: ‘This will be his monthly salary from today.’ It was an embarrassing for my father to say ‘yes’ to him! That’s how my long cricket career began,” former India stumper Chandrakant Pandit said, while fighting his emotions.
