It was a typical Mumbai morning of the late 80s. During an ordinary inning of a Harris Shield cricket match, something extraordinary occurred on the 22 yards. In a story that's become a fairytale now for every cricket academy student, two young schoolboys featured in all newspaper headlines when they shared an unprecedented 664 stand. One of these twin prodigees of coach Ramakant Achrekar went on to smash two back to back double hundreds in a typical west-indianesque flair. That sums up Vinod Kambli's salivating debut and painfully short-lived career. The other prodigy, however, turned out to be a horse for the longest course. From dethroning 'little master' Gavaskar to decimating all record books in a two-decade-long career- Sachin Tendulkar has earned a demi-god image in India today. But an another young pupil of coach Achrekar Amol Muzumdar sat all padded up to go next during that fabled partnership. Due to Sachin and Vinod's brilliant batting, he didn't get the opportunity to go on the field that innings at all.
Later on, while the under-19 and India A teams performed brightly under Amol's vice-captaincy in '94, it was Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly's turn to earn their maiden calls to the national team. Both turned into a hot property instantly as they debuted with a century and an impressive 95. In fact Sachin, Saurav, Rahul and VVS Laxman went on to form the famous fab four club (++Sehwag for fab five) and ruled the cricketing world with sheer domination over two decades. Meanwhile, Amol debuted his First-Class career with a record-shattering 260 run against Haryana in Ranji Trophy in the same 1993-94 season. By 2006-07 season, he was already the highest run-getter ever in Ranji Trophy already. Amidst this excruciating anonymity, Amol continued sweating and bleeding for Mumbai Ranji team, captained their campaign and won multiple trophies. Indian national selectors though somehow remained oblivious to his existence. They seemed to have closed the doors permanently for middle-order slots and Amol was the biggest casualties of this myopia. Despite a 50+ career average in FC cricket, he never got called up for a full Test or ODI series. In any other country, a player of his calibre and technique could have become a global sensation and earned accolades all along. Amol battled all his career with this ignominy, pain, angst and frustration. He even moved on from Mumbai to join Assam and Andhra to lend weight to their fortunes post-2010. He also evolved in career to become a batting coach for India under-19, under-23, Rajasthan Royals (IPL) and national teams of Netherlands and South Africa on an interim basis. Amol retired from professional cricket in 2014 in a short private ceremony but his records in a long illustrious career speak for themselves. There have been unfortunate players like Wasim Jaffer and Subramanyam Badrinath who weren't extended the long rope. But Amol Muzumdar, the unsung warrior of Mumbai cricket, remains the singular greatest cricketing story to have never played for his home country.
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