In the forthcoming test series against South Africa, long-standing fans of Indian cricket may be surprised to see a familiar face in the nets or in the stands, helping to coach the Proteas’ batsmen. That is because the visitors have appointed 44-year old Indian Amol Muzumdar as their interim batting coach.
For those unfamiliar with Muzumdar’s career as a player, this was a man who scored 11,167 first-class runs in domestic cricket at an average of 48.13, but never got the chance to play for his country at senior international level.
Fate never seemed to smile on Muzumdar. Aged 13 and already a highly talented middle-order batsman, he was padded-up and ready to bat at number five in the semi-finals of the Harris Shield inter-school trophy in 1988. He never got the chance. Instead, he had to sit and watch as the two boys ahead of him in the order, Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli, put on a world record third wicket stand of 664. They became household names overnight, he was forgotten.
Five years later, he made his first-class debut for Mumbai in the Ranchi Trophy against Haryana, and scored 260. That still stands today as the highest score ever made on first-class debut by a player anywhere.
Muzumdar, in part, was the victim of bad timing. In 1995, his big chance seemed to have come when he was picked for India A. Unfortunately, selected in the same side were Rahul Dravid, VS Laxman, and Soura Ganguly. Dravid made big scores against England A in the tests, whilst Ganguly caught the eye in the following ODI series.
The three then pressed their claims for international selection in the 1995 – 1996 Duleep Trophy and subsequently were picked for India, whilst Muzumdar missed out.
He never got another chance. Despite continuing to impress in domestic cricket, he had the misfortune to be playing at the same time as the Indian national team were blessed with one of its strongest ever batting line-ups. Instead, Muzumdar enjoyed a highly successful career, playing for Mumbai for 15 years, before going on to represent Assam and Andhra Pradesh. By the time that he retired from playing in 2014, he had scored 30 first class centuries, and won 8 Ranji trophies.
Now, at long last, he is going to be given his opportunity at test level. However, it is not in the capacity or for the country he would have expected when he was sat in the stands watching Tendulkar and Kambli all those years ago.
