Late cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar gave India dozens of deft international and domestic players. His students now want a small memorial to him at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park where he used to train budding cricketers. One of his students, Sunil Ramchandran, who is an office bearer of the Shivaji Park Gymkhana, took the initiative and wrote a letter in a personal capacity with the demand. Ramchandran says he sent the letter in June but is yet to receive a response from the city’s civic body BMC.
Celebrated cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Pravin Amre, Ajit Agarkar, and Ramesh Powar were students of Achrekar and were coached by him at Shivaji Park in Dadar. He was felicitated by the Government of India with the Dronacharya Award in 1990, and in 2010 he received the Padma Shri.
In the letter, Ramchandran requested the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to erect Achrekar’s memorial near gate number 5 of Shivaji Park. Achrekar would coach his pupils at Kamat Memorial Academy near this gate. His memorial would certainly inspire upcoming cricketers, Ramchandran believes.
“One day while roaming in Shivaji Park, I saw a few young cricketers in net sessions. I went to them and while talking with them, I randomly asked if they knew who Ramakant Achrekar was. I was shocked when they said they didn’t. But they know most of his students who have played for the Indian team. Achrekar Sir passed away in 2019, but the new generation has no clue about his contributions to Indian cricket. It was shocking for me. When I shared this with friends Atul Ranade and Pravin Amre who were also students of Achrekar Sir, they gave me the idea of having a memorial of Ramakant Achrekar Sir in Shivaji Park. I stay in the vicinity so I took the initiative and wrote a letter to BMC demanding this,” said Ramchandran.
Achrekar was not just a cricket coach but also a mentor to many students, he added. “Players from Ambernath, Dombivli, Thane, and Worli used to come to him for cricket coaching. But Sir helped many students in their personal lives also. I lost my father when I was just two months old. I started taking coaching from him and he used to charge Rs 7 per month as fees in 1980. But he never forced students like me who did not have a good financial background to pay then and there. I have seen him taking Sachin Tendulkar on his bike to play on different ‘wickets’ in Mumbai,” Ramchandran said. “Though we have not got any reply from the BMC to date, if required we will follow up with the Maharashtra government about this memorial. We are not planning to have a huge memorial of Sir which would become an obstruction for people who come to Shivaji Park. We are hopeful that BMC will help us.”
Ramchandran is of the opinion that a memorial of Achrekar will also inspire young cricket coaches. “Nowadays India is seeing some good cricket coaches like Rahul Dravid, Sanjay Bangar, Ramesh Powar, etc, but we need more coaches who can make more good players for the country,” he said. “Now everyone wants to become an IPL player due to the glamour attached to it, hence very few take the job of coaching seriously. But the memorial of Achrekar Sir would inspire them to be good coaches.”
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