Chandrakant Pandit: Coach with a difference

Walking into Chandrakant Pandit's academy in Mumbai, one can see the former India wicketkeeper in a panama cap, keeping a keen eye on his wards being put through the paces by assistant coaches.

Pandit, who made his mark as a coach during stints with the Kenyan national team, the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and the West Zone Cricket Academy (WZCA) apart from his time as coach with the Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai and Maharashtra teams, firmly believes in keeping things simple.

"Coaching is a 24 x 7 job and requires a lot of patience and perseverance. Not all trainees have the same level of aptitude and doing routine stuff with everyone does not help," said Pandit, who played five Tests and 36 ODIs for India, including quite a few as a specialist batsman.

"We have to behave like them and be one of them so that they open up with you and share their understanding of the game," said Pandit, who was a member of the team that played in the 1987 World Cup, along with main wicketkeeper Kiran More.

"Some coaches believe that hours of net practice will improve a players' technique while some others prefer to stage 'centre pitch' (practice matches). But I believe in 'situation therapy', where a player is made to go through various situations in a match. For instance, we explain what needs to be done when the team needs runs at a fast clip and what if the team has lost a few early wickets," he added.

Pandit felt that observing players early on helps spot talent quickly and narrated an interesting incident during his stint with the WZCA a few years ago.

Previous articles on Gurus of Cricket

MP Singh: Laying the road to success

Gursharan Singh: Doing a good turn to many

Tarak Sinha: The unsung hero

Gurcharan Singh: great master with adaptability

Dinesh Lad: The burnisher behind the scenes

Manabendra Ghosh: From coach to mentor

Achrekar 'Sir': Champion maker at dusk

More Headlines from Specials

• Chat: 'Match evenly poised at the moment'

• LOC: Sunil Gavaskar analyses day's play only on CNN-IBN

• Chat: 'India need to get Hussey early'

• 2004-05: Final frontier breached, finally!

• 2000-01: Test cricket at its best