Who is Chandrakant Pandit, coach behind MP’s maiden Ranji title?

Chandrakant Pandit’s magic worked again on Sunday, helping Madhya Pradesh defeat Mumbai by six wickets in the Ranji Trophy final at Bangalore’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

The victory comes 23 years after a teary-eyed Pandit left the same stadium when his team lost to Karnataka in the 1998-99 final. 

“It is a great memory that I had left 23 years back and it is a blessing that I come back here, and winning this trophy was fabulous. It is emotional because I missed out as captain on the same ground. It is not a particular reason but I look for a challenging job where the teams are not doing well, there also should be youngsters and to develop that particular state,” he said on Sunday, according to Hindustan Times.

Reminiscing about his decision to become MP’s coach, Pandit said: “I used to play for MP and played for them for six years, I knew the culture and the offer which came to me in March, I did not hesitate. There were a couple of offers but I chose MP because I had left something 23 years back and God willingly brought me back to the same state. Sometimes the talent is there but you need to develop the culture and whatever the game demands I try to inculcate them.”

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The 60-year-old also lauded the team’s captain, Aditya Shrivastava. 

“Aditya has been an outstanding captain, the plans and strategies we discuss, he was not afraid to implement them on the field. The captain makes the team win 50 percent of the time and he did a fantastic job even though he wasn’t getting runs. I owe this trophy to Madhya Pradesh. I would like to thank all the well wishers, the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association and Madhavrao Scindia,” Pandit added.

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Chandrakant Sitaram Pandit is a former Indian cricketer who was born on September 30, 1961, in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Between 1986 and 1992, he played in 36 ODIs and 5 tests as a wicketkeeper-batsman for the Indian national cricket team.

On June 19, 1986, he made his test debut in a match against England at Headingley, Leeds. The same year, he made his ODI debut in a match against New Zealand in the Austral-Asia Cup.

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Later on, Pandit decided to become a cricket coach. He trained the Mumbai and Vidarbha cricket teams, and helped the latter win the Ranji Trophy in 2018 and 2019. In the 2020-2021 season, he left Vidarbha to coach the Madhya Pradesh team.

“I had played for MP for six years in the past. So, when they contacted, I accepted. Because I was not going to continue with Vidarbha. It was purely my call, nothing untoward (had happened),” he said in an interview conducted in 2020, according to IANS.