Ramakant Achrekar: A sculpture who moulded cricket geniuses
Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar, Pravin Amre, Chandrakant Pandit, Lalchand Rajput and the list goes on. What is common between these Mumbai cricketers who went on to represent India at the highest level of cricket? All these were pupils of Ramakant Achrekar. The world-renowned coach for his persistence and discipline is no more amongst us but his memories live on.
Early life:
Ramakant Vitthal Achrekar was born in December 1932. He started playing cricket at the age of 11. In 1945, he played club cricket in Mumbai for New Hind Sports Club. He also represented teams like Young Maharashtra XI, Gul Mohar Mills and Mumbai Port. His only first-class match was for State Bank of India against Hyderabad in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament in 1963.
Coaching duties:
Setting his base at Shivaji Park in Dadar, Mumbai, Achrekar set his eyes on producing talented cricketers from the upcoming generation. He founded Kamath Memorial Cricket Club at Shivaji Park and thus began an era that was full of stories which would later become household tales.
Achrekar spotted Tendulkar’s talent early and started the process of converting him into a world-class player. We all know the stories of how he would take his student from one corner of the city to another on his scooter. After the day’s play, Achrekar would place a coin on the stumps in the nets and ask the bowlers to dismiss young Tendulkar. If the batsman preserved his wicket, the rupee was his. All these efforts culminated in Tendulkar making his Test debut at the age of 16 and turning into one of the greatest cricketers the world has seen.
The likes of Vinod Kambli, Pravin Amre, Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar, Amol Muzumdar were also brought up in the same discipline and tradition. All of them have achieved enormous feats in international cricket and owe their success to this legendary coach.
Awards and recognition:
In 1990, Achrekar was honoured with the Dronacharya Award for his services to cricket coaching. 20 years later, he was conferred with Padma Shri, one of the country’s highest civilian awards in sports category by the then Indian President Pratibha Patil. In the same year, he was awarded the ‘Lifetime Achievement’ award by Gary Kirsten, the then coach of the Indian Cricket Team.
At the age of 87, Achrekar passed away on 2nd January 2019 owing to old-age related ailments. The cricketing community gathered in paying their tributes to the legendary coach. His memories are cherished to this day and shall continue to survive for ages.
