Every cricket fan growing up in the 90’s will know how special Vinod Kambli ‘The cricketer’ was. Seeing him bat for the Indian team in that poor Indian side was a sight of relief, where every Indian batsman failed to prove his mettle (Baring Sachin Tendulkar), there was this young man from Mumbai, always standing there on that 22 yards like a ‘Khadoos Mumbaikar’. But, What happened to him? Why he couldnt convert his great start to a legendary career? Well, the answers lies in this quote by Harsha Bhogle, he said, “Talent never solves a problem beyond a point, I have seen some young cricketers, extremely talented, who the moment they saw a roadblock, did not know what to do, because they never had to struggle to succeed, they always use their talent to succeed and Vinod Kambli is one fine example, the moment Courtney Walsh bounced him in Bombay, did not know what to do and never played a test match after that, he was just 22 years old in 1994 back then, his last test match was at the age of 22 because he did not know how to play the bouncing ball, because talent had solved everything for him before.” This probably is the best analysis on Vinod Kambli’s career i have ever came across. Not only that he had enormous talent and did not know what to do when a roadblock came his way, he also lacked sincerity and punctuality. Remember, he was that kid who had that massive partnership of 600 odd runs with Sachin Tendulkar in a School cricket match, one member of that partnership became the God of cricket and the other is left miles behind.

There is a chapter on Sachin in class 10th textbook, but according to me, there should be a chapter on Vinod Kambli which should teach the students how to “Not Fail” in life and how to handle the roadblocks which will come in your way.

Even after his drastic failure, we all know how special that kid was during his early days, that kid was born on 18th January, 1972. Today we wish him a very happy birthday and a great life ahead.