“He didn’t have any respect for commodities” - Vinod Kambli’s friend reveals stunning incident of spending £700 after UK stint

Former India cricketer Vinod Kambli's friend has made a stunning revelation of an incident where the cricketer spent £700 after his UK stint. Kambli used to play for a local club in England back in the day.

Solly Adam, in a conversation with the Indian Express (via Hindustan Times), revealed how Vinod Kambli turned down a part-time offer and also spent all the money that he had earned (£700) from his stint with the local club, not caring about it. Solly Adam, for those unknown, was the man who had helped Sachin Tendulkar get a contract with Yorkshire.

"One day we were sitting, 10 cricketers. All of them had part-time jobs except for Vinod and Sachin. So a cricketer from Mumbai asked Vinod – 'Since you only earn 25 pound a match, why don't you work at one of Solly's places? Kambli didn’t think for a minute, pat came his reply: 'I and Sachin will make money playing Test cricket, I don't want to divert my attention doing part-time jobs.' That was exceptional, what confidence. He was very young, far from being a Test batsman but he had the confidence," Solly said. "Vinod, when he returned to India, took all the money from his father and spent it with his friends … Vinod never cared about money, nor did he have any respect for commodities," he revealed.

Of late, Vinod Kambli has been dealing with several health issues and has also been hospitalised many times, most recently only a couple of months ago.

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Vinod Kambli a case of missed opportunities

Along with his friend Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli was an exceptional talent right from his young days. One of Kambli's friends, Nasa Hussain, pointed out how he was a hard-hitter of the ball who would have been a multi-millionaire in today's time. He said (via Hindustan Times):

"As a South Asian, Sachin joining Yorkshire was big news. I'll tell you what was better, he brought along with him his friend Vinod Kambli, who played in our league. I've never-ever met a person who hits the ball as hard as he used to. He just ran down the track and hits the first ball for six, and you think, 'well okay'. Young man from India, never seen before, never heard of before, and he just comes and smashes it. Subsequently, he went on to score two double-hundreds against England. That was some talent. In today's day and age, that guy would have been a multi-millionaire."

Due to his issues with discipline, Vinod Kambli failed to maximise his potential and remains among the biggest cases of missed opportunities in Indian cricket.

He played only 17 Tests for India, scoring 1084 runs at an average of 54.20 with four hundreds. He also played 104 ODIs, scoring 2477 runs with two hundreds and 14 fifties.

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Edited by Sankalp Srivastava