NO LUNCH PLEASE

That's how JN Petit cricket coach Vijay Dalvi prefers it when his team is playing a match, and only has it if his team emerges triumphant

Suhrid Barua, Pune Mirror, April 29, 2009

Coaches have different ways of getting the best out of a team. And for JN Petit Technical School cricket coach Vijay Dalvi, the responsibility of spurring his team to winning ways consistently has made him do one thing that most other coaches won’t do. Wonder what? Dalvi prefers not to have his lunch during the time when JN Petit are playing a match.
Hear it from the man in question. “I never have my lunch when my team is battling it out in the middle. It doesn’t matter which age group tournament we are playing. It’s not that I’m superstitious about anything. I only sip water, I take my lunch only when the match is finished and my team has won the match,” reveals Dalvi.
Dalvi’s team is on the cusp of winning the Kohinoor Karandak Under-14 Inter-School Cricket final against SSPMS after garnering first innings lead at the ILS Law College ground.
So, does it effectively mean he goes without having his lunch when his team finishes on the losing side? “Yes, that’s the way it is. If my team is defeated, I prefer not to have my lunch,” says the former Maharashtra Ranji leftarm spinner. If you feel, it’s about a coach bragging about himself, think again. Even some of his players vouch for their coach’s unique way of not having his lunch. JN Petit captain Mohit Gautam only buttress what the man in the hot seat says. “Dalvi Sir never has his lunch during the time we are having a match. He will have it only when our team won, suppose we lose on any given day, he will not have his lunch.”
Another key player of the JN Petit side, Kshijit Sanadi, who picked up a fine seven-wicket haul in SSPMS’s first innings, said much the same thing about his coach. “He’s very passionate about what he does. He wants us to do well all the time, he pushes us hard which is good for us.”
JN Petit vice captain Vicky Sethiya spices it up even more when he disclosed another interesting side of their coach. “If we happen to lose, he will never scold us on that day. It’s only when we have won a match, he will remind us of our wrongdoing we have committed in other matches and give us a dressing down.”