A tale of Mohinder Amarnath’s magnificence and outspoken heart

A tale of Mohinder Amarnath’s magnificence and outspoken heart: Mohinder Amarnath’s ever charismatic smile shows more of his calm and cool nature, but hidden inside he is a tiger. Mohinder’s magnificent cricket journey continued for almost two-decades on the field, but interestingly he is still as much active in the game off the field as a cricket expert and analyst.

Nobody can doubt his cricket skills, yet on a few occasions he courted controversy by speaking his mind and heart out about the game that most times rides along with emotions in India. In one word, Mohinder Amarnath is a fearless fighter. Cricket Tracker attempt to explore various twists and turns in the life of the legend post retirement from the game.

Mohinder Amarnath was born on 24^th September, 1950 in Patiala, three years after India’s independence. His father Lala Amarnath was also a well-known cricketer. Jimmy scored 4378 Test runs with 11 tons and 24 fifties in 69 Tests at an average of 43. He scalped 32-Test wickets as well. In his 85 ODIs, the gusty top-order batsman scored 1924 runs with 2 centuries and 13 fifties. He also has 46 ODI wickets to his cricket.

Cricket, Coaching and Television:

The culmination in Mohinder Amarnath’s career came when India won the Prudential World Cup of 1983 in which he was adjudged the Player of the Series. However, he played quite a few international matches too until his retirement in the year 1989 from all formats of the game.

Following his retirement, Jimmy hosted the popular weekly cricket coaching TV program ‘Cricket with Mohinder Amarnath’ on Doordarshan, the first of its kind in 90s, when sports channels didn’t penetrate India via cable networks. The show was immensely popular with the aspiring cricketers. The title song of the program “khel hi hain hamara jeevan” (sport is our life) tied every cricket lover with a string of desire to play for India’s national team.

The success of Bangladesh is grabbing headlines these days; it was Amarnath who infused the spirit of cricket in the land which was more popular as a football playing nation at that time. The iconic stature of Amarnath as a cricket coach of the Bangladesh cricket team has immensely inspired a lot of young Bengali cricketers in those days. Unfortunately, Bangladesh’s failure to qualify at the Cricket World Cup 1996 led to Jimmy’s ouster from the job.

An ideal coach that India never had:

Mohinder Amarnath was then selected as the coach for Rajasthan and Bengal in the Indian domestic cricket circuit. His real success as a coach came when he was entrusted with the responsibility of coaching cricket in Morocco, a nation which was completely oblivious about the game. It was the time when Jimmy showed his sheer determination, courage and hard-work as he went on to learn Arabic and French (native languages of Morocco) to engage with the youths in a cordial manner.

Finally, the dream moment came true when Mohinder Amarnath was the front-runner for team India’s coach in 2005. However, it was Gregg Chappel who got the top-post. But in hindsight, most people will agree that Amarnath would have been the ideal guy for the job.

When an open mind catches controversy:

Amarnath became the selector of team India in 2011. He was now handling the work that he once claimed to be of “a bunch of jokers”, in the late 1980s when he was not picked in the team.

Jimmy again roused a controversy during India’s tour of Australia in 2011-12 when he opined that Virender Sehwag should have been entrusted with captaincy in Test matches and not Dhoni – the decision that selectors overturned due to Dhoni-Srinivasan relationship.

Once the controversial statement was made public, Mohinder Amarnath was immediately shown the exit door. However, he is currently enjoying his stint as cricket expert and analyst where he can speak out his mind and heart, thanks to India’s vibrant media. Despite all odds, Mohinder Amarnath, just like a phoenix, rises again and again to inspire younger generation with his legacy that is ever enchanting and ever blooming.