Madhya Pradesh’s Head Coach Revealed Why He Rejected The Offer Of Shah Rukh Khan: Chandrakant Pandit is the name on everyone’s lips after the 60-year-old guided Madhya Pradesh to their maiden Ranji title, defeating Ranji powerhouse, the 41-time champions, Mumbai, in the final at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Chandrakant Pandit won his sixth Ranji title as a coach – thrice with Mumbai (2002-03, 2003-04 and 2015-16), twice with Vidarbha (2017-18 and 2018-19), but it was with Madhya Pradesh in 2021/22 that got him emotional, the camera capturing him shedding a few tears after Rajat Patidar hit the winning runs at the Chinnaswamy. It was an emotional moment for Pandit, who was the captain when MP lost the 1999 Ranji final to Karnataka at the same venue.
“Every trophy gives you satisfaction but this is really special because 23 years back, I being the captain I couldn’t do it but today I’m very proud about Aditya [Shrivastava] that he has done it. I always felt I left back something to give to Madhya Pradesh and that was one of the reasons I was a little more excited and emotional about it to get that trophy back to Madhya Pradesh,” the MP head coach explained.
Pandit Revealed The Reason For Rejecting Offer Of Shah Rukh Khan
For all his success as a domestic coach, Pandit never coached in the IPL and stuck to domestic cricket.
Later on, Pandit, who played 5 Tests and 36 ODIs for India as a keeper-batsman, revealed that he had been previously offered an IPL coaching job – when before the IPL 2012 season, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had asked him to take up the role but he turned down their offer.
Pandit even disclosed that KKR co-owner and Bollywood mega-star Shah Rukh Khan had also insisted on him, but he rejected his offer only for one reason: he didn’t want to work under a foreign coach!
“I met Mr Shah Rukh Khan back then but somehow I couldn’t bring myself to work under a foreign coach,” Pandit said, as quoted by news agency PTI.
