It's a homecoming of sorts for two of the Mumbai-bred coaches as they guide the fortunes of their respective teams in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 Super League starting on Tuesday.
Pradeep Sunderam, who was the fast bowling coach of the Mumbai Cricket Association's academy at the Bandra-Kurla Complex until last season and also the coach of Mumbai under-22 team, is the head coach of Rajasthan team.
Former Mumbai Ranji Trophy winning coach and director of cricket, MCA Indoor Cricket Academy, Chandrakant Pandit is here as the coach of Kerala team.
Both Sunderam's and Pandit's teams finished second in their respective zones and are raring to go in this All India tournament that is reduced to a farce, if nothing else.
With their leading players not available as they have joined their respective IPL franchises ahead of the league starting in UAE on April 16, this Super League, played in two groups of five teams each in Rajkot and Mumbai, will throw opportunities for the lesser-known players.
Rajasthan are the only team here unaffected as none of their players, who played in Central Zone are in IPL. Sunderam said that the Pankaj Singh-led team is confident of doing well.
Pandit, who joined Kerala Cricket Association as its director of cricket, took over the mantle on March 22 before the South Zone leg of T20. His team will be without Sanju Samson, Prashant Parameswaran and Sandeep Warrier.
Pandit, former Test wicket-keeper, gives his team the example of Mumbai. "I tell them how Mumbai, without most of its players who are away on India duty, dominate Ranji Trophy. They should have similar attitude."
A tough task master and disciplinarian, Pandit said that he has been trying to make his players be more hungry for success. "One should not be satisfied with just qualifying for the all-India tournament. The hunger should be to go on and win it," he said.
Kerala beat Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra in their last three matches to finish second to Goa in South Zone.
The teams that will be severely affected by players joining their franchises are Bengal and Delhi besides Baroda. Bengal coach Ashok Malhotra said: "This is an opportunity to test the bench strength and who knows, good performances here may land them berths in next year's IPL."
Baroda will badly miss the Pathan brothers – Yusuf and Irfan. Coach Tushar Arothe said: "Both played key roles in us winning all the matches in West Zone leg last week. Their absence makes a lot of difference but our youngsters are pretty good," Arothe said.
Playing today:
In Mumbai (both 9.30am start): Delhi vs Kerala at Wankhede Stadium; Bengal vs Baroda at Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy, BKC
In Rajkot: Haryana vs Goa (9.30am); Jharkhand vs Gujarat (1.30pm)
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