From tennis-ball cricket lover to recipient of the Dronacharya Award - the journey of coach Dinesh Lad

"Don't worry if your tasks are small and rewards are few. Just remember that the mighty oak was once a nut like you."

It seems like Mumbai-based coach Dinesh Lad has come up with his own version of the aforementioned quote.

For established athletes, the foundation of their career is traced down to their journey of playing the sport in the early days, which is usually at school or a coaching club. Only adequate nourishment can yield the confidence of a youngster to pursue a sport as their career choice.

It is the immense responsibility of the child’s first coach to impart knowledge of the sport along with developing the required skill set for the sake of a prospering future. A childhood coach is someone who is the unsung hero of superstar players.

However, Lad’s efforts in brushing up young cricketers in Mumbai haven’t gone unnoticed over the years. After working at the grassroots level of Mumbai cricket for close to three decades, Lad has produced a couple of international cricketers and a handful of state-level players, while a few are currently a work in progress.

To commend the contribution of the 62-year-old coach, the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports conferred Lad with the lifetime Dronacharya Award at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday, November 30.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda after receiving the news of becoming the new Dronacharya Award winner, Lad recalled his late coach, Ramakant Achrekar, who groomed the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Chandrakant Pandit, Lalchand Rajput, and Ajit Agarkar during their childhood days. Lad said:

“Definitely, I am the happiest person in the world right now because whatever I gave it to cricket. Cricket has given me something. Now I got the Dronacharya award and that too after 32 years it has come to Maharashtra. It was given to my coach Ramakant Achrekar Sir.”

Rohit Sharma and Shardul Thakur's childhood coach Dinesh Lad is set to receive the Dronacharya lifetime award today... Many congrats to him🎉🥳👏 and truly well-deserved🙏👍👍 https://t.co/JZofmE9KcB

Lad, during his teenage years, was fascinated with tennis ball cricket. He often played in the lanes and streets of the city and would not wish to get out of his comfort zone until his coach pulled him out of his house to train. He recalled:

“I used to play street cricket and one of my friends took me to Achrekar sir’s friend. He took me to Achrekar sir. My problem was that I was very keen to play tennis ball cricket and sir would come to pick me up at my home.

“The moment I used to watch sir, I would run from the back door of our house. I was very much interested in playing tennis and cricket. So there was a student of sir, named Naresh, who would come to take me to the ground. He would tell sir I am hiding somewhere and then sir would shout at me and take me to practice."

Financial difficulties forced Lad to end his two-year stint with coach Achrekar and move to another club in pursuit of earning money. However, he termed the decision as the biggest mistake of his life even though the separation helped him secure a job with the Railways team. He explained:

“The biggest mistake of my life was to leave Achrekar sir during the 1980s after coaching under him for three years becuse things weren’t great at home and I had to take a job. So I took a job at a different club and played for them from 1981 to 1982 and suddenly I got a job in Railways under sports quota.”

The Mumbai-based coach was gleeful as well as amused when he looked back at how his coaching journey commenced in 1993. Although he wasn’t confident about his first coaching stint, things galloped to an extent that even the then-Railways player found it astonishing to fathom. Lad stated:

“In Mumbai there are a lot of camps organized in the April-May period and a lot of them require coaches because almost 400-500 kids enroll. I have a friend named Nitin Parulekar who used to play along with me for the Railways.

“One day he asked me whether I would be interested in coaching and at that time I was only 32 years of age. So I was surprised how I could do coaching. He told me that your work would be to give catch practice and 25 kids would be under you with a payment of ₹550.”

Lad was offered a permanent coaching role after the completion of the 47-day camp, thanks to some of the Railways' policies, which provided their players with the leverage to look after things other than playing cricket.

Lad even credits former Railways coach Mahohar Surve's assistance in securing a job at the Railways, saying:

“After giving it too much thought, I joined an institute called Prabodhankar Krida Bhavan in Goregaon where they had their camp. It started on the 15th of April and finished by the 31st May.

"After the prize distribution, the secretary had called me and offered me for regular coaching. At first, I was shocked as I wasn’t able to believe how I would take up the role without sufficient experience. I even told my friend about my reluctance to take up the role. But he insisted that I go for it.”

He added:

“Back then I was working for Railways and we used to get half day. Sometimes we used to have practice and sometimes we didn't. We used to get time to practice outside, so then I thought I should give it a try (coaching). So in May 1993, I started with Prabodhankar (Kridabhavan) in Goregaon.”

Due to the long march today at Veer Savarkar Smarak at 4pm at Shivaji Park, was unable to attend the wedding reception of Dinesh Lad's son and Ajay Arvind Khatri's daughter. Visited their house and gave the couple blessings and wished them luck for the future. https://t.co/186BPq16Bp

The Harris Shield (Under-16) and the Giles Shield (Under-14) are the two most prestigious school tournaments in the history of Mumbai. Some of the most renowned international cricketers who hailed from the country’s financial capital had to make an impression in the two tournaments.

Always great to be there with Dinesh Lad Sir talking cricket and life. A humble man with passion for cricket. He likes distributing cricket knowledge to anybody who wants to learned https://t.co/SG0w5CU2c7

Lad, who has been coaching Swami Vivekanand International School (Borivali) since 1995, found it challenging to crack the code in school tournaments in the initial years as a coach.

He somehow managed to convince the parents of a few players from Prabodhankar Krida Bhavan to join the SVIS school in order to form a core unit. It was only a matter of time before he witnessed his coaching career’s turning point. Lad stated:

“In 1998, slowly some talented kids came to me after learning about this school. In the same year when we were playing the quarter-final in Harris Shield against Shardashram, it was the biggest achievement as far as my coaching is concerned.

“My teacher, Achrekar sir, was sitting next to me as the coach of the opposite school. We defeated Shardashram in the quarter-final and after the game sir gave a pat on my back and said ‘Well done Raju’. Because everybody knows me as Raju not Dinesh Lad. So thereafter my interest in coaching became engrossed."

Even after winning against his former coach’s team in 1998, it took more than a decade for Lad, who is presently the coach of Mumbai U-14, to understand the science of coaching and help players improve their shortcomings.

1999 was a special year as Lad discovered India’s current skipper Rohit Sharma at SVIS and a new chapter was about to be written. He fondly remembered:

“After 16 years of coaching, I can easily point out anything in the technicality of the player. If a boy is batting and playing faulty shots with a wrong stance. I could sense that he was doing something wrong but I didn’t know how to rectify it at that point.

“I took so much interest in coaching and now I can just point out to students that you are doing this wrong like you’re holding the grip the wrong way. It took 16 years to understand the game. And in 1999 you know I got the Hitman.”

Rohit has been known to be an explosive batter over the years. But not many might be aware of the fact that a young Rohit was inclined towards bowling off-spin and would bat at No. 11 for the school team.

It was only when Lad discovered Rohit practicing in the nets with a straight bat and a slot in the middle order followed by an elevation to open was on the cards.

While opening in his first innings, Rohit scored an impressive 140 to earn applause from his coach and the rest of the team members. Whenever Lad’s name appears in the news, instead of being referred to as a Mumbai coach, he gets the tag of Rohit’s childhood coach. Giving a quick reaction to it, Lad said:

“Rohit Sharma is the Hitman. One of the best batsmen in white-ball cricket right now. So I take absolute pleasure when people know me as Rohit Sharma’s coach and I feel happy.”

Respected Mr. Dinesh Lad ,

We are forever grateful to you for believing in @ImRo45 since his childhood days. You saw the potential in him , motivated and trained him to become the successful cricketer he is now 🙏🌹
Happy Teachers Day !

From,
The entire Rohitian family ❤️ https://t.co/6qvN13WfTL

All-rounder Shardul Thakur, who has played 62 matches for India across formats, is another prominent tutee of Lad. However, he had to convince Shardul’s father and his own wife, Deepali Lad, to keep the budding cricketer in his own flat in Borivali in a bid to relax his five-hour to-and-fro travel commute from Palghar to Mumbai.

Explaining how it was difficult to convince Narendra Thakur to allow Shardul to study in Mumbai, Lad mentioned:

“His dad didn’t agree to that as he wanted Shardul to focus on board exams for 10th grade and was concerned about his education. I made 20 phone calls to him in three months, but he had the same answer that it’s not possible to come to your school because he has to travel five hours daily.”

He added:

“One day I asked my wife if I wanted to keep one boy in our home. She just looked at me and the answer was ‘It’s your home, I don’t have any issues." Shardul stayed with me for one year and it was the turning point of his life.”

Mumbai’s 21-year-old Suved Parkar, who scored a magnificent 252 on his first-class debut against Uttarakhand in the 2022 Ranji Trophy season, is the next promising student of Lad.

The likes of Harmeet Singh, Siddhesh Lad (his own son), and Atif Attarwala are the other players who have featured in various levels of competitive cricket.

It was so hot out there that South African legend Makhaya Ntini’s son got exhausted after batting. He batted four 4 hours in the sun under watchful eyes of Rohit Sharma’s coach Dinesh Lad in Mumbai.
The story coming out soon on: youtube.com/c/TausRizviVlo…
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With him set to complete 30 years of coaching career next year, there is no stoppage in terms of sowing more interest in age group cricket. Lad has just one request from the state or central government to facilitate him with a ground where he can groom more Rohit Sharmas and Shardul Thakurs. Lad concluded by saying:

“If I get a ground near Borivali, Dahisar, Malad or Kandivali. The ground at my school is very small, I can practice there and if I wanted to play a match nearby then the ground charges would be 10,000 or 15,000 somewhere. It is very difficult to spend so much money.

"How can I pay so much money because I don’t charge such an amount from school or the parents. If I get a good ground, I can do wonders.”