MUMBAI, Oct. 10 -- "What a beautiful stroke". For a cricket lover, it could be a broadcaster admiring a cover drive. For an art connoisseur, a brush gliding across canvas. For Mohan Jadhav, it's both. The Pune-based cricket coach and painter, whose latest exhibition, 'Heritage Hues', was showcased at the city's Jehangir Art Gallery, has long balanced his two callings. He drew three parallels between the disciplines that define him. "A painting begins on an empty canvas. You observe, visualise and then create form. Coaching is no different," Jadhav said. Jadhav's artistic journey began while studying maintenance mechanics at the Industrial Training Institute in Aundh. One of his professors noticed his sketches and offered a piece of advice that would change his life: "Your hands should not be blackened; they should make colour." Jadhav left the course to pursue fine arts at Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya. To support himself, he imprinted names on signboards, school benches, and banners, earning a modest 50 paise per word then. Since his first exhibition in 1995, Jadhav has had 43 shows across India and an international award from the Watercolour Artists Society, Russia. Cricket, however, found him almost by accident. When a district camp in Pune needed a volunteer coach, Jadhav stepped in, unaware that it would become his second calling. What began as a temporary role soon turned into full-fledged passion. By 2008, he had joined the Varroc Vengsarkar Cricket Academy in Pune, first mentoring the Under-14s and then the Under-19s. Among his earliest trainees was 11-year-old Ruturaj Gaikwad, now captain of the Chennai Super Kings. At the academy, Jadhav introduced a diary system for players, and in one such diary lay Jadhav's ability to spot potential. "Once, when I wrote Ruturaj's name in his diary, I dotted the 'j' with the BCCI symbol," Jadhav recalled with a smile. "He didn't realise it then, but years later, when he noticed, I told him he would play for India. I saw the passion and the will to learn in him." Like with his paintings, there's variety in his coaching. "If one approach doesn't work with a student, you change it. Every player, like every painting, needs a unique perspective," he said. That philosophy shaped several promising players - from former India U-19 captain Pawan Shah, to 2022 U-19 World Cup-winning squad members Rajvardhan Hangargekar (now with Lucknow Super Giants) and Vicky Ostwal. Over a dozen of his trainees have gone on to play Ranji Trophy. Even legends have taken note of Jadhav's work. When former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar visited his latest exhibition, Jadhav presented him with a painting that captured his iconic pull shot, featuring the Lord's stadium in the backdrop, three cricket balls to symbolise his consecutive centuries there, and the World Cup faintly gleaming behind. Over the years, Jadhav has immortalised other cricketing moments too: Virat Kohli in Test whites, Kapil Dev lifting the 1983 World Cup, and Shane Warne's ball of the century. Yet, when asked which moment he would most like to capture on canvas, his face lit up with a grin: "Definitely, (MS) Dhoni's winning six."...