Muzumdar appointed Netherlands' batting consultant

Amol Muzumdar, the former Mumbai captain and batsman, has been appointed batting consultant by Netherlands Cricket (KNCB) for the 2015 World Cup 2015 Qualifier, which begins in January in New Zealand. Muzumdar will be assistant to the team's head coach Anton Roux, and will start his new job from January 3, when Netherlands travel to New Zealand to play the Qualifiers.

A week ago, Muzumdar received a call from former Dutch captain Jeroen Smits, who now is the director of cricket, to check if he'd be interested in taking up the role. "I was not doing anything much, so I thought it was a good opportunity," Muzumdar said.

Muzumdar is already familiar with the Dutch cricket environment, having played first-class cricket with Quick hg, a domestic cricket team in The Hague, for the last three years. At Quick, Muzumdar played the dual role of coach-cum-player. When he joined Quick, they were playing relegation matches. This year, however, Quick won the national championship, beating Amsterdam-based club VRA in the best-of-three match contest. It was the first time Quick had won the tournament since 1986.

Muzumdar also was the coach of the under-19 team at Quick and was instrumental in helping the side win the national tournament for the first time. Muzumdar had played alongside national players Wesley Barresi and Edgar Schiferli, who was captain at Quick, and acquainted himself with other national players by visiting the side's training camps in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

"It is a new venture. I have been a player with a lot of teams. But as a coach of an international team, this is my first time," Muzumdar said.

Last month, Muzumdar, who turned 37 recently, stepped down as an active player from Andhra - the team he had represented in the Ranji Trophy for the last two years. Muzumdar had switched to the role of a mentor at Andhra but, according to his contract, his last day was January 1.