[1] He later served as the director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) [2] and as the chief of the BCCI Selection Committee.

He grew up in the Shivaji Park area in Bombay, studied in Balmohan Vidyamandir and Ramnarain Ruia College and was coached by Ankush 'Anna' Vaidya.

In the early matches of the Australian tour, he scored 116 against South Australia,[10] which included Rodney Hogg, and 60 and 97 against Queensland which had Jeff Thomson, Geoff Dymock and Carl Rackemann.

[12] In the first innings of the first Test at Sydney Patil had reached 65 when just before the tea break on the first day, he was hit on the throat by Hogg.

At the time, the highest score in an innings by an Indian in Australia, it took him just over five hours and included 22 fours and a six over mid-wicket off Bruce Yardley.

While the Indian team toured West Indies, he scored 121* in 84 balls in the second innings of the Ranji final against Karnataka.

On the last day of the Delhi Test against England in December 1984, with his score on 41, Patil was caught at long on attempting a big hit off the bowling of Phil Edmonds.

[19] This was viewed as "throwing away his wicket" when in fact it was in his natural style of attacking batting, it triggered a collapse and India lost the match that could well have been saved.

Patil was dropped in the next test at Kolkata as a disciplinary measure, along with Kapil Dev who also fell to a similar shot off the bowling of Pat Pocock.

Soon after the 1983 Cricket World Cup victory, Patil was offered by Vijay Singh to play the lead opposite two Bollywood actresses Poonam Dhillon and Debashree Roy in Kabhie Ajnabi The, while Syed Kirmani was offered to essay the role of the antagonist.

[24][25] "Sandeep Patil ended up coaching neither Poonam Dhillon nor Debashree Roy on the sets of Kabhi Ajnabi The.

Where Sandeep tarried far too long about being a Debashreeman, Miss Roy went on to become a captive star sought by Bengal's topmost cineaste directors.

Wasn't it Kapil Dev who remarked, as he saw the Patil Boy act dashed awkward in Kabhi Ajnabi The, that Sandeep was as slow in going for Debashree-Poonam as he was in going for the high ball in the field?” ESPN wrote on his performance, "he even aces the love-struck Hindi film hero's signature move of producing notes from a guitar without moving either hand".

[26] The Tribune wrote, "In contrast to their heroics in the 1983 World Cup, Patil and Kirmani were clean bowled on the big screen".

[30] In 1983, Patil was married when he met Debashree Roy on the set of Kabhie Ajnabi The (1985) and reportedly had an affair with her.