Ramakant Achrekar, who has honed a battery of Test cricketers including Sachin Tendulkar, died at his residence here on Wednesday. He was 86.
Achrekar served as a cricket coach on the Mumbai maidans for more than four three decades until he was paralysed in the late 1990s. At least a dozen of disciples — including Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Chandrakant Pandit, Lalchand Rajput, Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Pravin Amre, Sameer Dighe, Ajit Agarkar, Paras Mhambrey, Ramesh Powar — represented India in Tests and many others succeeded in first-class cricket.
“Cricket in heaven will be enriched with the presence of Achrekar sir. Like many of his students, I learnt my ABCD of cricket under Sir’s guidance,” Tendulkar said of his beloved coach-cum-mentor. “His contribution to my life cannot be captured in words. He built the foundation that I stand on.”
Tendulkar, along with Kambli and Amre, visited Achrekar’s residence in Dadar and paid their respect. The last rites will be performed on Thursday morning.
In recognition of his contribution as coach, he was honoured with the Dronacharya Award in 1990. Later in 2010, he was awarded the Padma Shri.
After being a regular on the Mumbai maidans in the 1940s and 1950s, he founded the Kamath Memorial Cricket Club at Shivaji Park in Dadar and continued to hone budding youngsters till he had a paralytic attack in the late 1990s. He was considered to be among the most selfless coaches in local cricket.
Besides grooming cricketers, such was his emphasis on discipline that many of proteges have developed into coaches of repute. Rajput has coached three international teams, while Pandit and Amre are among the most respected and successful coaches in domestic cricket. Mhambrey is the bowling coach of India A while Sulakshan Kulkarni and Amol Muzumdar have been excelling as coaches in the domestic arena and Indian Premier League. Dinesh Lad, the coach of Rohit Sharma and father of Mumbai captain Siddhesh, is also a protege of Achrekar.
