Appearing in The Vickey Lalwani Show, Kambli spoke at length on his health, financial troubles, alcoholism and rehabilitation.
When asked if he ever got into heavy drinking Kambli said “tha pehle, gaya”
(I was into drinking before, then I left drinking).
Kambli’s interview with Lalwani comes just days after a video that went viral across social media platforms that showed Kambli in poor physical state. According to media reports that video is of Ramakant Achrekar memorial event which was also attended by former cricketer and Kambli’s childhood friend Sachin Tendulkar.
In the interview Kambli also cleared the air regarding his relation with Tendulkar.
“hum log bachpan se thae” Kambli said.
(we were friends from childhood).
Tendulkar and Kambli were close friends from their childhood days and trained together under Achrekar. The duo were also teammates as they represented India. However their careers took opposite trajectories. While Tendulkar broke numerous batting records and became a legend of the sport, Kambli faded away in the oblivion after initial success. This apparently affected their bond.
In 2009, Kambli in a media interview said that he was getting no help from Tendulkar. Interestingly, in this interview, Kambli said that he got all the help from Tendulkar.
“sab kiya usne, help bahut kiya, mere do operation hue Lilavati mein, usne sab mein help kiya, financially” Kambli added.
(he did everything, he helped me a lot, I had two surgeries in Lilavati hospital. He helped me in those financially.)
The former cricketer also talked about his favourite knock of his career. For him, his double hundred in a Test against England at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium is the one he enjoyed the most.
“jo (innings ) Wankhede stadium mein kiya. uss samay kaun thae, Achrekar sir aur mere dost. Bahut acchi team thi humari. Itna accha team kahin nahi deka humne.”
(the innings in Wankhede stadium, there was , Achrekar sir and my friends there at that time. Out team was very good. I had never seen such a good team anywhere. )
The left handed batter hit 224 in India’s first innings of a Test against England in 1994. The knock was pivotal in helping India crush England by an innings and 15 runs. That Indian team composed of Kambli, Tendulkar, Navjot Sidhu, Manoj Prabhakar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Pravin Amre, Kapil Dev, Kiran More, Anil Kumble, Rajesh Chahuhan and Venkatapathy Raju.
Kambli felt that the emergence of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid made it difficult for him to come back to team India after he was dropped from the Test side.
“mushkil hua, lekin comeback kia, ten comebacks kiye, mazak nahi hai, dus comeback karna Indian team mein”, Kambli added.
(It became tough, but I did make a comeback. I made 10 comebacks. It is not a joke to make 10 comebacks in the Indian team).
Kambli confessed that he is struggling financially.
“bad, bad, bad…jis tarah se meri biwi handle karti hai sab logo ko, hats off to her.” Kambi said when asked about his financiall state.
(my financial condition is bad, but how my wife handles things, hats off to her)
After the video from Ramakant Achrekar memorial event surfaced several players, including captain Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar, from India’s 1983 World Cup winning squad had said that they are ready to support Kambli, provided he undergoes rehabilitation.
“Sure, no hesitation ” Kambli said when he was asked if was ready to undertake a rehab course.
