Heartbreak to heroes: How Syed Mushtaq Ali’s grandson fuelled Ghariyals’ title run

Indore: Behind the Chambal Ghariyals’ run to the men’s and women’s titles at this year’s Madhya Pradesh League, the premier domestic T20 tournament in the state, was not just the hurt from a heartbreak at the finals 12 months ago but also the quiet work put in by the backroom architects, one of whom shares his surname and lineage with one of Indian cricket’s leading stalwarts and the country’s first overseas Test centurion: Syed Mushtaq Ali.Syed Abbas Ali, the grandson of the great Syed Mushtaq Ali, after whom the country’s leading domestic T20 competition is named, took charge of the Ghariyals while they were still carrying the agony of a defeat by just two runs to the Bhopal Leopards in last year’s final.Former India cricketer, Chitra Bajpai, came in as the coach of the women’s team under similar circumstances, as they, too, finished runners-up after a loss in the tournament final.This season, however, the stories were completely different.With largely new squads assembled through the player auction and draft Chambal returned to win both the men’s and women’s titles without losing a single match, becoming the first franchise to complete an unbeaten double in the league’s history.While the players produced the runs, wickets and catches, the groundwork had been laid long before the tournament began.

Both Abbas and Chitra Bajpai had a simple message for the charges as they assumed their coaching duties: keep the game uncomplicated.“The message was very clear,” Abbas Ali told TOI, “My grandfather and my father always told me to keep cricket simple. Don’t complicate it with too many experiments. We followed the same approach. We looked at one game at a time and never spoke about staying unbeaten. We only realised after the league stage that we hadn’t lost a match.”Abbas, a former MP first-class cricketer, said the franchise spent considerable time discussing combinations before the player auction instead of chasing star names.“We wanted balance. Luckily, we got the players we wanted. Every match produced a different hero. We were never dependent on one or two cricketers. That was our biggest strength.”Preparation also extended beyond team selection. Knowing that most of Chambal’s league fixtures were scheduled during the day, the squad trained in the afternoon heat in Gwalior to get accustomed to similar conditions before arriving in Indore for the 23-day tournament.Ali also credited senior professionals such as Avesh Khan and captain Shubham Sharma for setting the tone inside the dressing room.“I remember when Avesh got injured and missed two matches. Instead of sitting quietly, he stood near the boundary, guiding one of our young Player Development Programme bowlers, giving him water after every over and encouraging him. That summed up our team. Everyone celebrated each other’s success.”The women’s team traversed a similar path under Chitra, who joined Chambal Ghariyals Women after coaching last year’s champions, Bundelkhand Bulls. Like the men’s side, the women’s squad was built from scratch, bringing together players from different districts with varying levels of experience.“We never tried to overcomplicate things,” Bajpai told TOI, “The girls came from different parts of Madhya Pradesh, but once they joined the camp they became one unit.

Our instructions were simple: build partnerships with the bat, save every possible boundary in the field and enjoy the game.”Bajpai said handling the pressure of the final was equally important.“I told the girls not to think of it as a final. If you start worrying about the occasion, you stop playing your natural game. We treated it like any other match,” she told TOI.Led by India all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar, with experienced campaigner Rahila Firdous and young batter Kanishka Thakur playing key roles, the women’s team completed its unbeaten title run before the men’s side followed suit two weeks later.For Chambal Ghariyals, the trophies were the rewards for all the hard work they put in at preparatory camps.The bigger achievement was creating two dressing rooms where no individual carried the team, the coaches pointed out, adding that different players delivered on different days, with the seniors guiding the youngsters.Both coaches stuck to the same belief: simple cricket, backed by trust and discipline, still wins tournaments.