Vasu Paranjape, the man who mentored Tendulkar, Gavaskar is no more | Cricket News – Times of India

MUMBAI: Vasudeo Jagannath Paranjape, or Vasu Paranjape, a noted cricket coach who mentored many cricketers of the city, and had a huge influence on India greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar, passed away at 2.30pm at his residence in Matunga on Monday.
Apparently, he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease in his final days. He was 82. He is survived by his wife Lalita Paranjape and three children – a son and two daughters. His son Jatin Paranjape is a former India batsman and an ex-national selector.
He played 28 first-class matches for Mumbai, in which he scored 785 [email protected], including two hundreds and an equal number of fifties, but his major contribution to the game lay in guiding the likes of Tendulkar, Gavaskar, Vengsarkar and Sanjay Manjrekar early in their career. Both Gavaskar and Vengsarkar played for the famed Dadar Union club under him — he was their first captain at the senior level.

For India’s 1983 World Cup Sandeep Patil, Paranjape played the role of a match-maker to the ‘T.’ “He was instrumental in bringing life and happiness in my life as he arranged the meeting with my wife Deepa at his house. My wife had turned down my marriage proposal twice without meeting me. After that, Vasu arranged a meeting between us and it worked out. I will remain grateful to him and his wife all my life for this gesture!?” an emotional Patil told TOI.

He was a director of coaching in the BCCI in the 80s, and was a coach at the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai (with Aussie pace great Dennis Lillee) and the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore too. He was the in-charge (head coach) of a camp which the Board conducted for the Indian team in Delhi before the Reliance World Cup in 1987. He was also the coach at a camp the BCCI conducted for India’s under-15 cricketers in Indore in 1987. Amongst those cricketers who attended the camp were Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble.

There are numerous anecdotes and tales about ‘the legend of Paranjape.’ Apparently, he introduced a 14-year-old Tendulkar to Mushtaq Ali in Indore as ‘Meet the second-best batsman India has produced after Gavaskar.’ The story also goes during the camp, the ever-witty Paranjape told the duty manager, who had come to complain about Tendulkar’s shadow practice at night disturbing other hotel guests to ‘go and bowl to him.’

It was Paranjape who prodded Vengsarkar, then the India and Mumbai captain, to watch Tendulkar-then creating a buzz on the maidans of Mumbai with his tall scores for Shardashram Vidyamandir -for the first time, in an inter-school game. “Back in 1988, when I was the India captain, I was playing a Times Shield game at Parsee Gymkhana before my 100th Test (against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai). Vasu was the one who told me about a ‘talented’ boy called Sachin Tendulkar. He insisted that I should come with him to watch him bat in the Harris Shield final. He took me for the match. And obviously, he was right about his assessment of Tendulkar’s phenomenal talent,” an emotional Vengsarkar recalled to this paper.

Paranjape was in the Wankhede press box when Tendulkar scored a hundred on debut for Bombay, against Gujarat back in 1988. “May his soul rest in peace. He shaped the careers of so many cricketers, including mine,” said former India batsman Pravin Amre.
Amongst those whom he groomed was former India off-spinner Ramesh Powar, currently the India women’s team coach. Powar initially wanted to be a batsman, but turned to off-spin bowling at the insistence of Paranjape. “Vasu made Powar sit outside the nets at the Elf-Vengsarkar academy. When Vengsarkar arrived at the academy, he asked Vasu about it. He told him this kid is saying he is a batsman, but after having seen him, I think that he’s a very good off-spinner and should forget about batting. Vengsarkar asked Powar to bowl. The first ball that Powar bowled, he gave so much flight that it landed outside the net. Vengsarkar told Vasu: ‘What nonsense is this? You are saying he is an off-spinner and he is putting the ball outside the net. He told him: ‘Which kid here have you seen flight the ball so well? This is natural flight. Give him time. We will polish his skill. Powar went on to be a very good flight bowler,” recalled an old-time cricketer.
Describing his days while under Paranjape, Vengsarkar reminisced: “I was just 15 or 16 when I began playing under his captaincy at Dadar Union. At that time, we won the Kanga League A Division championship for five years on the trot — from 1973-78 I think. I played under him at Dadar Union for many years, and we kept winning the Kanga league title every other year. He was very fond of cricket and cricketers. Cricket was his life. He mentored many cricketers, and encouraged me a lot. He was a great motivator. He was an outstanding captain, always positive in his approach to the game. At that time, he had a fiat car, in which we used to go to watch matches. Most importantly, he had a tremendous sense of humour. He was very witty, and his one-liners were amazing. Playing with and under him was great fun, and we used to look forward to it. He had a tremendous knowledge about the game. He was a great fan of Australian cricket, and (Aussie legend) Don Badman was his God. Having read many books on Bradman, he knew everything about him. He used to keep telling us stories about Bradman.”
Apart from Dadar Union, he also played for Tatas, Madhav Apte’s Laxmi Vishnu Mill and Nirlon. “Those days at Dadar Union, we used to practice every day. Vasu used to be the first for both practice and matches, and never missed either. For a game which was supposed to begin at 9.30am, he would arrive at the ground at 8.30am, which tells you how punctual he was. He was so fond of cricket. A few years ago, when I rebuilt the Dadar Union club, I organized a 10-overs-a-side match between Dadar Union and Shivaji Park Gymkhana (on December 25, 2014), who used to be the arch-rivals that time, which involved at least 50 year-old cricketers from the 60s to the 70s. Vasu led Dadar Union, while Ajit Wadekar (former India captain) played for SPG. There was lunch for them at Matunga Gymkhana, and a musical afternoon. All the players sang and reminisced about the old days. It was such a fun-filled, lovely morning and afternoon,” remembered Vengsarkar.
Later, he also umpired in local games. Amongst his countless stories, which reflect his amazing sense of humour and wit is this: A batsman showed him his bat after Paranjape gave him lbw as an umpire in a club match. He responded by saying: “It’s a lovely bat. Next time use it. “
“I went to meet him on Saturday. He had become very weak,” concluded the former India captain. “I had just sent a message in the morning to Jatin that I am coming to Matunga side in the afternoon and could I drop in to see him? I asked (to meet him) in the gap between the second and third Test too when was I out of bubble if I could come down but Jatin said he was not coherent and would make him speak to me when he was a bit coherent,” Gavaskar, clearly devastated on hearing this news, told this paper.
Those who knew him well say he was a multi-linguist, who could talk fluently in Marathi, Gujarati and Tamil. “He was devoted to the game,” they say.