While recalling the good old memories of legendary Indian cricketer Ajit Wadekar, Former Indian batsman Vinod Kambli had asserted that he had gotten used to receiving three WhatsApp messages from Ajit Wadekar on a daily basis. He also recalled the “fun times” they had together back when Wadekar was India coach and played indulgent mentor-cum-father figure to Kambli and Sachin Tendulkar.
Kambli also revealed, “It, of course, was about how we used to have meals and drinks on his tab at the hotel and make him pay for them. He used to be surrounded by press reporters. And the Wadekar tab was offered to them too. And then he would come and tell us, ‘Achha, the board has to give me extra allowance from now on’.”
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By the time, Wadekar, who led India to its first ever overseas series win, has become the Indian coach in 1992, he was recognized as the legend in Mumbai circles. Talking about the same, Tendulkar said, “Vinod, I and he would always be next to each other on flights. He had this great ability to become a 20-year-old in our company and we could never tell the age-gap really. He would even take us along if he was meeting a friend for a meal.”
Tendulkar and Kambli also accepted the fact that Wadekar’s innate sense of humor helped them to become closer to the legend. However, the flamboyant southpaw also revealed the during his coaching stint, Wadekar always gave a sense of authority which made even the senior players like Kapil Dev and Mohammad Azharuddin listen to him.
Vinod Kambli elaborated, “We were allowed to call him Jitya, like everyone else. But when he spoke, everyone listened, and it was no surprise that so many memorable team and individual performances came during his reign. He would always get the seniors to do the talking during meetings, and we would get our chance too on and off.”
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Recalling one of the incidents during a Test match in Kandy where Indian players got to show their dancing skills in a rain-affected game. He said, “There used to be a lot of security in Sri Lanka in those days and we couldn’t leave the hotel. I went to him and said, ‘Sir, we’re getting bored’ and hatched a plan with him to invite the entire team to the discotheque in the hotel and get them to show their moves. And everyone, including Kapil paaji, was made to show a few individual steps in the center of the room. Who could say no to Wadekar after all.”
Kambli revived another occasion when he called each member of the team and in the coach’s voice, ask them to show up for a meeting in Wadekar’s room late in the night. A shocked and half-asleep Wadekar would open his door to find the entire team there and insist he hadn’t called a meeting. Even Sunil Gavaskar insisted that Wadekar’s manner of speaking was pretty easy to mimic, especially the way he would say, “arre kay re” at least once a day.
The master blaster also asserted that cricket was always serious business for Wadekar, including bringing in a curfew system. Tendulkar and Kambli would often indulge in various “challenges” during fielding drills with their coach. Kambli talks about the time Wadekar pulled him up after he was dismissed for 224 against England at the Wankhede Stadium, 12 short of Gavaskar’s then record as an Indian batsman.
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In his first few Test matches, Kambli was averaging more than 100 and recalling an incident related to the same, he said, “’Gadhadya, record saathi ghelaas aani out zhaalas na?’ (You went for the record and got out) he said and I responded saying, ‘Arey, (Mike) Gatting took the catch. What can I do?’” says Kambli. To which, Wadekar replied, “Sarkaar, you have left Bradman behind.”
The only other time he recalls Wadekar, who retired as the executive director with State Bank of India, not seeing the funny side was whenever the flamboyant left-hander would jokingly ask him for a bank loan. He’d said, “Arey kaay re, they have become strict these days.”
