Jatin Paranjape Reflects On Sachin Tendulkar's Mischief, Vinod Kambli's Struggles & Harsh Truth About Prodigy Cricketers

In a podcast at The Free Press Journal’s office studio, Jatin Paranjape regaled us with some hilarious stories of Sachin Tendulkar. And also shed light on some glaring problems in the world of cricket.

Jatin Paranjape wears multiple hats. Founder of sports platform KheloMore. Former international cricketer. Member of the BCCI Advisory Committee and Former BCCI National Selector. And mentoring young cricketers at the Vasoo Paranjape Cricket Center, a premier training facility named in honor of his father.

However, storyteller is another feather he can add to his cap. When he visited us the Free Press Journal’s studio to shoot for our IP- The Celebpreneur’s Podcast, he regaled us with some anecdotes involving Sachin Tendulkar practical analysis of why so many prodigy cricketers don’t make it big later in life.

When they were junior cricketers, Jatin and Sachin flooded Sourav Ganguly’s room when they were at a national camp in Indore, while the Prince of Calcutta was sleeping. In another instance, when he was bowling for three hours at night after dinner to Sachin the security guard went and complained to his father, who simply replied, ‘What are you doing? Go and field!’

But the one important observation that he made was about why prodigy cricketers fail. According to Jatin, the answer is simple- lack of a support system. “Its very important to have that because in cricket, there's so much of adulation around young cricketers and its very easy for a young boy or a girl who's an amazing cricketer to be led up the wrong path. You have a friend who gives you an expensive gift and then he gives you one more and that becomes a pattern- and they start thinking this is my true friend. But you never know what ulterior motives people have,” Jatin told us.

Which brought us to what went wrong with Vinod Kambli. “I think just just sheer lack of discipline and wrong company. He was not that way when he made his debut for India because Shardashram, the school which they played for, was coached by Ramakant Achrekar. I always say that Sachin always said no to temptation and Vinod always kept saying yes and that led to his downfall. But now I think Vinod has managed to kick the habit. What you see now is not actually drunkenness- its a neurological situation,” Jatin explained.