Chandrakant Pandit Makes A Huge Revelation About Kolkata Franchise
Chandrakant Pandit and Sharukh Khan (Image Source: Twitter)
In the recently concluded Ranji Trophy season, Madhya Pradesh won its first-ever title after defeating Mumbai at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Players like Rajat Patidar, and Himanshu Mantri were in great form throughout the season.
However, their veteran coach, Chandrakant Pandit got a lot of praise after this victory. It was the sixth time that he won this trophy as he did it thrice with Mumbai and twice with Vidarbha already. However, now he opened up about an experience that he had before 2012 as he got an opportunity to work with the Kolkata franchise of the Indian T20 League.
“Somehow I couldn’t bring myself to work under a foreign coach,” – Chandrakant Pandit
Now speaking to PTI, he was asked if he ever gets bothered not to work with any franchise so far in the Indian T20 League. He came up with a cheeky reply as he said: “Agar phone karunga, toh Kuch mil jayega par who Mera style Kabi thaa nahi (If I call (any IPL teams), I will get something but that’s not my style),”
Madhya Pradesh’s coach also recalled a meeting with the owner of the Kolkata franchise, Bollywood star Sharukh Khan before the 2012 season. He said that it was quite hard for him to work under a foreign coach. “I met Mr. Shah Rukh Khan back then but somehow I couldn’t bring myself to work under a foreign coach,” he added.
After the Ranji Trophy triumph this year, Pandit said that maybe it was his fate to win this as he failed to do the same for this state 23 years back. He said: “Every trophy gives satisfaction but this one is special. I couldn’t do it as an MP captain years back (23 years). All these years, I have always felt that I had left something back over here. That’s the reason I am a bit more excited and emotional about it,”
As a player, Chandrakant Pandit had some major heartbreaks as he experienced a one-run defeat in the Ranji Trophy final against Kapil Dev’s Haryana. However, his last Ranji match was against Karnataka where he faced a defeat to them in the Ranji Final of 1999.
