Muzumdar revealed that his speech in the team huddle was spontaneous.
India's Women's World Cup-winning head coach Amol Muzumdar has revealed that his "seven hours without noise" speech to the team huddle was spontaneous.
The speech went viral and drew comparisons to Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan's "Sattar minute" speech from the movie 'Chak de India'.
During his pre-match talk, Muzumdar delivered an inspiring message to the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side.
"Seven hours we cut out all the noise. We cut them out of our lives; we create our own bubble here. Seven hours create our own bubble, and we step into it, and we finish that, and we write our own story, no more stories from the outside. We write our own story. You will write your own story. Let's stay in that bubble for the next seven hours. Let's create history," he said.
Muzumdar emphasized that his speech was from the heart and it wasn’t theatrics by any means. He admitted that while he prepared his huddle talks until the semifinals, the final speech came out naturally.
"I am not about dramatics. So I am far away from that. What comes out is very honest, and I speak from my heart. I do not know where the parallels (with SRK's Chak de India speech) have come from. However, I have seen that I use my phone. So I see those things, you know, coming through," he stated in a video shared by BCCI Women on X.
The coach further elaborated his approach to team talks, saying, "Look, if there are parallels, there are parallels. I cannot help it. Yes, regarding the motivational speeches, until the semifinal one, I always knew what I was going to say in the huddle. I always knew that I would speak this to the players so that they get charged up, so that they set the tone right, right at the start of the huddle. And that's where everything, the energy flows from the huddle. I always knew it."
He explained how the final speech came to him, adding: "But in the finals, about that seven hours thing, it was an absolute impromptu one. I didn't know what I was going to speak about, and that time I just tapped on my own shoulder and said, I'm going to speak about what you feel like over there. And went into the huddle and that thing came up."
The triumphant campaign was far from smooth for the Women in Blue as they faced heavy backlash in the middle of the tournament following their three successive defeats against South Africa, Australia and England.
However, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side proved their critics wrong by staging a comeback for the ages, defeating New Zealand, Australia and South Africa to lift the coveted trophy.
Muzumdar termed the match against New Zealand as his most cherished moment of the tournament.
"The day we turned up for the New Zealand game, it was a do-or-die situation. You win the game, and you advance to the semifinals. You lose the game, you're out of the World Cup. And there will be some brick bats after that. So it was on the knife's edge," he added.
He recalled the partnership that turned the game around: "And when we entered the ground and when the partnership started to happen, blossom between Pratika and Smriti Mandana, that is a time when I felt we were in control of this. And I will remember that particular day, that particular game against New Zealand, as one of the most cherished one in this tournament."
Shared his thoughts on the World Cup victory and future aspirations, Muzumdar said: "It was always a dream to, you know, to win the World Cup or to become the best in the world. And it still is a dream. You know, that dream cannot just end with the World Cup. It has to continue. That journey has to continue. There was one dream of winning the 50-over World Cup. There it is. But at the same time, the journey continues."