Dinesh Lad has been giving cricket coaching for 26 years in Mumbai. He does not charge a fee. A former Western Railways player and employee, he is content with his pension. Lad has produced stars such as Rohit Sharma, India’s new T20 captain, and Shardul Thakur. His own son Siddhesh is a Ranji Trophy winner.
But one thing pains Lad. Despite his track record, he does not have a proper ground at his disposal for his trainees. His requests to government authorities and the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) have gone unheeded.
Lad has been making do for all these years with a small space at the Swami Vivekananda School in Borivali, Mumbai, where it is not possible for trainees to get match practice.
“Despite my contribution, I have to beg authorities for a ground. This is my durdaiva (misfortune). I’m trying to do good but I’m not getting support,” Lad tells Moneycontrol on phone on November 10, a day after Rohit Sharma was confirmed as India’s T20 captain. “I’ve been running around here and there (for a ground). The school ground is small. So kids don’t get match practice here, only nets. You can’t make a player from just net practice.”
There are many grounds in the Borivali area. These tend to charge Rs 15,000-20,000 per day for a match. Lad says he cannot pay such rates, nor would he like to burden the parents of trainees with ground fees.
Lad is known to open the doors of his home to students if they need a place to stay. Thakur stayed with him for a time, since his own home was in distant Palghar. Currently, Lad has taken two boys, a vegetable vendor’s son and a labourer’s son, under his wing.
“I’ve done everything for cricket. Even now my point of view is not commercial. I don’t want to go on foreign trips, I don’t want to watch movies in a mall every other day. It’s about getting a ground for kids to play matches,” Lad says.
Lad’s non-mercenary approach to coaching was inspired by Ramakant Achrekar, the late coach of Sachin Tendulkar. Lad too trained under Achrekar, a simple, scooter-riding man devoted to cricket.
The Achrekar effect, coupled with the job at Western Railways, ensured that Lad never saw coaching as a source of income.
“My guru Achrekar Sir, I was with him nearly four years, he did not think commercially. He gave a lot of time to kids. That made an impact on me,” Lad says. “So maybe because of that, when I started coaching, I did not think I will make something (money) out of this, because I also had my job.”
Ambitious parents and some greedy instructors have brought an element of corruption to cricket coaching in India, Lad feels. Whenever he accepts a student, he tells the parents that they are never to interfere in the process or repeatedly ask about the child’s progress.
“I don’t allow parents to be too involved,” Lad says. “Strictly, I tell them, I don’t want questions about the child’s progress. I tell them I will coach my way. Cricket has become a profession, which is fine. But then they compare their child with other kids, and that puts pressure on the child. Coaches these days also misguide parents sometimes by telling them their child will surely play IPL (the Indian Premier League) one day.”
It helps while laying down terms that apart from Sharma and Thakur, Lad has moulded nearly 80 Ranji-level players. It also helps that he does not charge fees, and is under no financial obligation to indulge parents.
“I have been coaching since 1995,” Lad says. “If any parent says they have given me money, I will stop coaching.”
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