Dinesh Lad: The burnisher behind the scenes

It's amazing how often chance encounters shape new worlds. Twelve years ago Dinesh Lad, cricket coach in Gorai's Swami Vivekananda International School (Mumbai), took a liking for a 12-year-old Rohit Sharma who was bowling innocuous off-spins in a summer camp.

About two years back in an inter-school game, 14-year-old Shardul Thakur fascinated Lad. Turning up for Palgar's Tarapur Vidya Mandir School, Thakur — full of bones then — was generating good pace.

Lad got both Rohit and Shardul enrolled in Swami Vivekananda International School so that their cricket could bloom under his watch. Rohit's journey thus far in international cricket does not warrant re-telling. Shardul's is a curious story. Remember how this boy galloped into record books slamming six consecutive sixes in an over in the Plate division of the Harris Shield.

Indian cricket owes its assembly line to the likes of Lad — men at the coalface who are conveniently understated.

Lad got involved in coaching through a fortuitous design. In 1992 when Lad was still playing for Western Railways, his friend Nitin Parlekar sought his assistance for a summer cricket camp at Goregaon's (Mumbai) Prabodhan ground. "I started giving individual attention and just got too involved in it," Lad recalls.

We have heard it said that coaches have an eye for talent, but is it as simple as that? "It is partly intuitive," Lad says. "For a batting talent we look at finer things like stance, head-position, body balance. But more than that it's the inner material that sets apart the unique from the good."

He reminisces his playing days, "I learnt my cricket under Ramakant Achrekar. I loved tennis ball cricket and used to run away from him, reluctant to face the leather. But Sir always chased me down to drag me to the nets. Probably he thought that I had the potential. I didn't go far as a player but my boys must."

Matches, only matches

Lad's style of coaching is a touch different from that of Manoj Tiwary's coach, Manabendra Ghosh, whose boys don't tire of doing shadow boxing till they perfect their game.

"I have never believed in shadows or drills. For me the best way to groom a player is make him play matches. That's what made a Sachin Tendulkar. At the nets you don't hesitate stepping out of the crease since you don't have the fear of getting dismissed."

Previous articles:

Manabendra Ghosh: From coach to mentor

Achrekar 'Sir': Champion maker at dusk

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