Vidarbha: the making of a modern-day domestic cricket giant Premium

Prashant Vaidya's journey from a short-lived cricket career to transforming Vidarbha into a Ranji Trophy powerhouse.

Prashant Vaidya was once rated the fastest bowler in India. He will quickly remind you though that a certain Javagal Srinath was very fast, too.

Unlike Srinath’s, Vaidya’s career was cut short by injuries; he ended up playing just four ODIs. But, he went on to play a key role in turning Vidarbha into one of the giants of domestic cricket, from an outfit that used to be the third best among the three teams from the State of Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy.  

Last month, Vidarbha lifted its third Ranji Trophy in seven seasons. For a team that, Vaidya says, even cricketers didn’t know existed during his playing days, that is quite an achievement: remember, glamorous teams like Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad haven’t won Indian cricket’s most prestigious domestic title as many times.

The first of those titles came in 2017-18, after shocking Delhi in its maiden final by nine wickets at Indore. Chandrakant Pandit, probably the most successful coach in Indian cricket, was in charge of the team. Skipper Faiz Fazal led from the front, scoring 912 runs at 70.15.

The following year, Fazal’s men retained their crown, beating Saurashtra by 78 runs in the final, which they played at home. Five years later, Vidarbha lost the final in Mumbai to the host.

The team was back in the familiar environs of Jamtha for this year’s final. Vidarbha, in fact, played all its three knockout matches at home: that was because it had scored, in the league stage, more points than its rivals, Tamil Nadu, Mumbai and Kerala.

After beating Tamil Nadu and Mumbai outright, Vidarbha was very much the favourite against Kerala, which was playing its maiden final. The host could not force another outright win, but a first-innings lead of 37 runs proved enough in the end for its third title: with a superb second-innings hundred, Karun Nair batted Kerala out of the match.