India women’s team head coach Amol Muzumdar has said he never had a sleepless night during his playing days but the must-win Women’s ODI World Cup match against New Zealand did put him under pressure and unable to take a decent nap in the lead-up to the contest.
With three defeats on the trot, India faced a premature exit in its home World Cup but it defeated the White Ferns by 53 runs via DLS Method to secure the last semifinal berth.
Indian women then went on to defeat seven-time champion Australia in the semifinals and South Africa in the final to lift their maiden World Cup recently.
“I didn’t have a sleepless night before my (first-class) debut for Mumbai because Kadu bhai (former India player Karsan Ghavri) was my manager. I knew he would take care of it,” Muzumdar recalled during a felicitation event at the Bombay Gymkhana on Monday.
Muzumdar said Jemimah Rodrigues’ unbeaten 127 in semifinal was the turning point, which gave India the confidence to lift the prestigious trophy.
“You can say so (beating Australia was the turning point),” he said.
“Before the New Zealand game, there were a couple of sleepless nights because that was the must-win game. We always believed that if we have to win the World Cup, we’ll have to beat Australia somewhere down the line, either in the semifinal or in the final.”
“We were all geared up for that game but Jemimah’s knock was phenomenal…a knock for the ages, I guess,” he added.
Muzumdar said the World Cup-winning moment still felt unreal, and added that it would have changed the lives of many in the team.
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“Lifting the World Cup has been a surreal moment and it has changed the lives of a lot of cricketers in India, including me. I don’t know about the film part. I really don’t know where the parallels came from,” said Muzumdar in response to a query if a Indian Chak-style movie was in the pipeline.
He said it was captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s idea to give the World Cup trophy to former India players after the win.
“It was just a natural thing for Harmanpreet to do that, and when she saw Jhulan Goswami…she just gave the World Cup in her hands and also Mithali (Raj) and Anjum Chopra was there, Reema Malhotra was there,” he said.
“It’s not just the 15 players who are playing. It’s also important for the people or players who have laid the path for these 15 players to do the honours,” he said.
Muzumdar remembered the legendary Ramakant Achrekar, also his former coach, while discussing technology in coaching.
“I remember Achrekar sir everyday, I think. He was the epitome…he had a different style of doing it (coaching).
“Today, there is the laptop.
That time, maybe a small chit and he used to scribble something. That’s the only difference. But he did…things. I think he was ahead of his time.”He said no amount of coaching and technology can beat instinct and enthusiasm in a sport like cricket.
“There’s data, there’s analysis, there are statistics available. There are 195 parameters that you can tap into each day.
“I’ve realised that, as a player you don’t need that many things. You just need to pick small little snippets out of it and then make a story,” he said.
Published on Dec 16, 2025
