The defining picture of the Women's World Cup final on Sunday came only a few minutes after the last South African wicket fell. Harmanpreet Kaur, the Indian women's team captain, bowed down and touched the feet of Amol Muzumdar before going into the head coach’s embrace. After the victory against Australia in the semi-final, Harmanpreet had spoken about how a dressing-room speech from Muzumdar following the defeat against England helped the Indian team put their campaign back on track. The trust and the respect were mutual.
Muzumdar took charge of the Indian women's team in October 2023 and his primary task was to get rid of the dressing-room toxicity. The preceding five years had been a period of upheaval — the leaks of unrest, factionalism and groupism ruling the roost. Muzumdar won the trust of his wards. No wonder that after the triumph, Harmanpreet & Co spoke about him in glowing terms.
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Muzumdar made a brilliant double hundred on his Ranji Trophy debut for Mumbai. Over 20 seasons in domestic cricket, he went on to score 11,167 first-class runs that had 30 hundreds. He never played for India, for that was the time of the ‘Beatles’ — Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman — and the middle-order had no vacancy.
After his retirement, Muzumdar took to coaching and rose through the ranks, cutting his teeth into it with age-group teams at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). He was part of the Rajasthan Royals’ support staff and served as South Africa’s batting consultant. But coaching the women's team offered a much higher degree of difficulty. He is now a World Cup-winner as a coach.
As he spoke to the host broadcaster after achieving the crowning glory, Muzumdar didn't talk much about his role, giving the players the credit instead. “Unbelievable achievement and they (players) deserve every credit and everything that will follow from here. They have worked terribly hard,” he said.
The head coach added: “They have done every Indian proud. We did not look at those losses as losses, we looked at them as we could not get over the line. We dominated the majority of those matches, and we just thought there were some hiccups. We were still alive in the tournament and here we are, as world champions. I know for a fact that they have worked extremely hard for this, and it is a watershed moment for Indian cricket.”
Muzumdar had special praise for Shafali Verma, the player who wasn't in the original squad and came in as the injured Pratika Rawal's replacement. Shafali was the star of the final through her all-round performances.
“Magical,” said Muzumdar. “(She) turns up in the semi-final. In the final, packed ground, (she) turns up with a magical innings, and then with the ball.”
This is the 1983 moment for the Indian women's team and Muzumdar has played his part brilliantly.
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