Amol Muzumdar: Indian cricket 'Nearly Man' and 'those five minutes of blur'

Navi Mumbai: Amol Muzumdar had carried his scars of a "what could have been" for far too long. But not anymore though.

One of the domestic doyens of 1990s, Muzumdar was a rare Mumbai stalwart, who missed out on a coveted Test cap due to presence Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly in that Indian line-up.

As a school cricketer, he remained padded forever as Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli recorded a 664 run stand for Sharadashram Vidyamandir in the Harris Shield final.

But Harmanpreet Kaur's catch to dismiss Nadine de Klerk was that soothing balm must have had its healing effect on that wound that Muzumdar must have been carrying for years.

"After the catch, I don't know what happened. The next five minutes was blur. I was here only (in the dugout). I was looking up in the dugout. I was looking up. I didn't know what (had) happened," he said during an interaction with a select group of journalists.

He never experienced the highs of an India cricketer but now he is a World Cup winning head coach and we have had only three -- Gary Kirsten, Rahul Dravid and now Amol Muzumdar.

Kapil Dev's 'Class of 1983' didn't have any national coach as the concept was alien back then and MS Dhoni's 'Batch of 2007' had Lalchand Rajput, who was a stop-gap cricket manager.

"It has not sunk in yet but probably as the days go by, it will sink in. But it’s a surreal feeling,” he said when asked about his reaction to winning the tournament." What was special about this team was that they had each other's back.

"Two years have been incredible with this team. They're all together all the time. We back each other. You'll see, nobody leaves in anyone's back and it's been fantastic to work with such talented group of players," he said when asked about his two-year stint with the Indian side.

As a player, Muzumdar was an old school 'Khadoos Mumbaikar' and when asked if the team's approach had his footprints, he didn't deny.

"Whatever inputs I can give, whatever experience I do have, I love to share it always with them. I don't hold back from sharing certain things, so whether that you may call it an imprint, but it's just the experience that I share,” he said.

Muzumdar said he urged the team not to read much into their three defeats on the trot.

"I kept telling (the team) that we have not lost the game; we just were not able to just cross the line. We were competitive in those matches, we were very close in beating South Africa, Australia, and England,” he said.

“We just were not able to cross the line, but post that, what grit and determination girls have shown, has just been phenomenal in beating New Zealand in a virtual quarterfinals, then semifinals against Australia and then now again, South Africa in the finals. Unbelievable,” he said.

During the last six weeks, the hardest decision for him as a coach was to drop Jemimah Rodrigues from the England game in Indore to get an extra bowler in all-rounder Amanjot Kaur.

"To be very honest, we were absolutely clear that if we want to have six bowling options at a certain time then we will have to sacrifice one batter," Muzumdar told the media after India’s win in the final over South Africa.

"We were very clear about that so whoever, whether it was Harleen or whether it was Jemimah, we were clear about it. Six bowling option, one batter misses out — somebody has to make way to some for someone to come in." Muzumdar admitted Shafali Verma's inclusion from outside of the selected group of 15 squad members and six reserves was “a sudden change”, highlighting at the selection headache in form of multiple options.

"Maybe it appears from outside, it's a sudden change, but we were clear about it and Shafali was a sudden change I would say. Nobody expected Pratika (Rawal) to get injured, but if things happen and that itself tells, if you look at a positive way, it shows that a player as good as Shafali was not finding a place in the (squad of) 15. So there you go, but she came and played a magical game,” he added.

Talking about the legacy, Muzumdar believes that the win will usher a new beginning for women's cricket in the country.

"It's a watershed moment in Indian cricket. Not just women's cricket in Indian cricket. You must have seen, stadium khacha-khach bhara hua tha (the stadium was jam-packed). I don't know how many crores of people must have watched on the television," he said.

"I'm sure from there, some of them must have got inspired. You never know. Like 1983 (India’s maiden World Cup win), it inspired a lot of cricketers in that generation. You never know. I just met a little girl; three or four-years-old, whose inspiration is Harman. She follows Harman wherever she goes, so there you go," Muzumdar added.