Dighe's is a sweet and sour story

mumbai: in october 1998, he had decided that cricket would no longer be his priority. he finished a promotional course with air-india in two-and-a-half months and went to singapore, dubai and jakarta as an assistant flight purser. two-and-a-half years on, he wore the india colours for the carlton & united triangular down under. then he made important contribution with the bat in india's dramatic win over australia in the chennai test three months ago.now, he is a part of the 15-member indian team in zimbabwe. meet indian cricket's latest destiny child: mumbai wicket-keeper sameer dighe. "you call it destiny or whatever, i have been treading through an amazing path," said 32-year-old dighe just before embarking on the zimbabwe tour. though he could not speak much about the handful of surprises -- sweet and sour -- in his cricketing career, his countenance told a story. a story of a no-hoper turned winner. celebrated coach ramakant achrekar had told dighe (aged 18 then) that he should stop dreaming about playing for mumbai. for, the domestic giants had the likes of chandrakant pandit, sulakshan kulkarni, jayprakash jadhav andshrikant kharge as glovemen. "when sir told me this," recalled dighe, "i don't know how, but i told him that no matter what, i will play for mumbai." fourteen years later, seeing the worried face of indian skipper saurav ganguly after the fall of fifth wicket at 122 (chasing 155) during the chennai test, dighe said: "dada, we will win this game. we won't leave an inch." he scored an unbeaten 22. but before these euphoric moments, dighe had to face some tough challenges. he was dropped from mumbai's ranji trophy team in 1997. he had left the tata's, but failed to work out a contract with one of the minor counties in england. dighe came into the limelight after smashing pakistani attack in an exhibition match in england in early 1990s. but he couldn't make the final cut. kiran more was easily our best wicket-keeper till 1993 and later nayan mongia took that mantle. on the other hand, dighe was struggling on the domestic front. largely seen as a 'keeper only good enough for one-dayers due to his batting abilities, he was not a part of the mumbai team which won the ranji trophy in 1996-97. the combination of skipper sanjay manjrekar and coach balwinder singh sandhu opted for sulakshan kulkarni which paid rich dividends. any ambitious player would have felt uncomfortable with this arrangement. and it was during this time that dighe was seriously thinking about a shift in focus: from cricket to flying. but suddenly, things changed. manjrekar hung up his boots and the mumbai cricket association (mca) decided not to renew its contract with sandhu for 1998-99. and though mumbai fared miserably next season -- failing to reach the super league -- a change in guard (captain vinod kambli and coach ashok mankad) helped dighe play in the longer version. two centuries during the league games and his positive attitude impressed powers that be. once kambli was relieved from the responsibilities of captaincy, dighe got the nod. ``when i was dropped from the mumbai team, i had offers to play for other states. but it never touched my mind. i was just happy being part of mumbai's cricketing tradition,'' said dighe. ``leading mumbai was a huge honour. i couldn't have rejected that.'' the icing on the cake was provided when mumbai regained the ranji trophy under his leadership. during the same season, the indian selectors had given back the mantle of captaincy to sachin tendulkar. dighe's proximity with the little champion and the anti-mongia wave meant the down-and-out dighe of 1998 was on the flight to australia for the triangular. though dighe played some one-dayers after the australian tour, he was never considered for tests. mongia cleared his name from the match-fixing controversy and managed to regain his test place for the first two games against australia. however, his differences with the indian team management came to the fore during the decisive test in chennai as dighe was included at the last moment. two weeks ago, dighe, playing in the mahindra shield final for air-india against indian oil, would have laughed at the suggestion of representing india in test cricket. some laugh at his wicket-keeping skills. how does he react when people call him tendulkar's man? ``it doesn't bother me much,'' said dighe. ``everyone will have their opinion. you have got to take the criticism. it makes you tougher. i agree that mongia is a very good 'keeper, perhaps the best in the country. my job is to capitalise on the opportunities which come my way.'' ``people may say that i'm fortunate that tendulkar knows me for the last seven to eight years, which is true in a way. but i know one thing: when i will make a mistake, he will take me apart.''