LOOK to the West for batsmen; look to the South for bowlers." So went Indian cricket’s credo not long ago. Eastern son Saurav Ganguly may have provided the exception to the first part of the rule three months ago. But the second part is calling for drastic, speci-fic and immediate revision. Make it: "Look to Karnataka for bowlers."
Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Sunil Joshi, David Johnson—hurlers of the red cherry are tumbling out of here like some countdown show gone haywire. Add to it the class of Rahul Dravid and the nerves of Sujith Somasundar, the hopes of pace-man D. Ganesh, middle order bat R. Vijay and wicketkeeper Somashekhar Shiruguppi—and you’re looking, staring, glaring at the nation’s new cricket cradle.
Seven Karnataka players have donned the navy blue cap this year. A state which had produced 12 Test players in 63 years has produced four in the past four months. A minimum of five have been in the playing XI in the last 10 one-day internationals. And there were six in India’s first two matches in the Titan Cup. Any wonder then that of the 304 balls bowled by India in the thriller against Australia in Bangalore last fortnight, only 33 were ‘touched’ by non-Kannadigas?
There’s more to Karnataka’s climb than numbers. It’s the Ranji Trophy champ, Irani Trophy champ; both feats achieved when its stars were away. The state which threw up the gentle spin of E.A.S Prasanna has produced the fastest hurler in Indian cricketing history, Srinath. The state which gave 5 feet 2 inches of G.R. Viswanath has given us the tallest, at 6 feet 5 inches, in Prasad. The state which sent the first Anglo-Indian player (Roger Binny) to play for India has also sent the second (Johnson). And the state whose cricket crop came from metropolitan Bangalore is reaping the harvest in every nook and cranny.
Admittedly, the four-time Ranji Trophy champion’s domination of the national side isn’t quite reflected in the outcome of the matches. But so dramatic and so emphatic has Karnataka’s rise and rise as a cricket superbowl—and the fall and fall of Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai—been that, when Srinath and Kumble hauled India out of the coals in Bangalore, it seemed just natural that a uniformed IAF officer should do his "namaskaram" to the legspinner’s mother and grandmother. That Reebok should dunk Mumbai—which has one big player in the side, Sachin Tendulkar—from its sponsorship plans.
Just what’s happening in Deve Gowda country? "It’s a cycle. The North and West have gone through it before. We’re doing so now," says C. Nagaraj, secretary, Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA). True. Players from Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad have similarly populated the side before. But what’s special here is that no one’s talking of quotas for a change, although Viswanath’s three-year term as chairman of the national selection committee overlaps the penumbra.
What’s more special is that, on the face of it, Karnataka doesn’t quite look like a flo-werbed of talent. There are just two turf wickets in Bangalore. Although each of the 19 district headquarters has a turf pitch, much of the cricket is played on mats. There’s less club cricket than in Mumbai and Chennai, few long-duration tournaments, no great employment opportunities. R. Mohan of The Hindu was emboldened to write: "Players are coming through in spite, not because, of the system."
So, what gives? "The introduction of cricket for the under-13, under-16, under-19 and under-21, and increased exposure for juniors has helped us produce talented players," says former Test batsman Brijesh Patel. Adds his legspin mate B.S. Chandrashekhar: "The KSCA has done a good job of encouraging youngsters. They are getting more matches to play and prove themselves." Sums up KSCA PresidentK. Thimmappaiah: "We’re taking cricket deep into the state, catching them young and coaching them."
Still, what is it that enables the "Best of India" to beat the Rest of India even when six of its stars are away in Toronto? "There’s an abundance of natural talent here. And it’s being tapped," says offspin legend Prasanna. But bowlers who fling the red cherry at 130 kmph in the land of Prasanna and Chandra? "True wickets and lots of one-day cricket have made it easy for mediumpacers," says former Ranji player R. Sudhakar Rao. Adds a Kannada journalist: "Send up a prayer to the MRF Pace Academy and Dennis Lillee."
Cricket historian Ramachandra Guha has a theory for the resurgence: "The upsurge of young fast bowlers is Karnataka’s revenge for 912 for 8." Holkar’s batsmen thrashed Mysore’s bowlers so badly in that historic 1945-46 Ranji match that V.M. Muddaiah, who was lucky not to be picked for the playing XI, commented wryly: "Our players ran so often to the boundary and back that had they run in a straight line, they would have reached Bangalore and saved the association railway fare!"
Seriously, what has really turned the curve up is a cocktail of cricketers, coaches, clubs, coaching camps, competition and climate. Former players like Viswanath, Chandra (till he was injured), Patel, Roger Binny and Sudhakar Rao have done much to contribute to the game. Unlike most states, they personally go around scouting for talent. And, having done that, groom them for the higher grade. As a Mumbai player admits: "It makes a difference when such guys work at the grassroots." It was at their instance that the format of the inter-zonal pentangular cricket tournament was changed from knockout to league six years ago. This gave youngsters especially from the lesser cities and towns more matches to display their wares and impress the selectors. Vishy & Co hit pay dirt immediately. Kumble was spotted in Bangalore and Srinath in Mysore; Sunil Joshi in northern Gadag.
Correspondingly, a Challenger Trophy-style tournament was introduced in which a combined mofussil team could pit its talents against two city teams. More discoveries followed: Ranji captain P.V. Shashikanth in coastal Mangalore; wick-etkeepers Avinash Vaidya and Somashekhar Shiruguppi, and left arm spinner Anand Katti in Hubli-Dharwad; batsman Raghottam Navli in Shahabad; Railway all-rounder Yere Gowd in northern Gulbarga; medium pacer Nasiruddin in southern Mandya.
RESULT: the Karnataka side, almost always comprising Banga-lore boys, went local with a vengeance. Says Patel: "For 15 years, in the ’70s and ’80s, we had a good system here. But there was a slump of six-seven years as the selection process was flawed. The KSCA has woken up now, and is not involved in deciding who plays and who doesn’t." Wiser, KSCA now subsidises all mofussil cricket, and stages all Ranji matches outside Bangalore. The idea is to give youngsters in the area a chance to watch, and latch on to the game. It’s working: half the under-13, under-16, under-19 and under-21 sides comprise mofussil cricketers.
"Mofussil boys now move to bigger cities if they see they’ve scope. There are exciting jobs up for promising players. It wasn’t the case before when they had only public sector jobs in mind. They had a frog-in-the-well attitude which cramped their growth," says former Ranji player S. Krishnamurthy.
Srinath too is quoted as saying he’s flummoxed that so many have sprung up so soon. Although much is made of Bangalore’s conducive weather for fast bowler production, Prasanna says it’s great to the extent that cricket can be played 10 months of the year. Beyond that, Bangalore’s weather didn’t happen overnight, did it?
A simplistic reason for the talent-spurt could be that the gap between Karnataka and international cricket has gotten smaller than other states, making it so much more easy for the state’s hopefuls to make the jump—or at least to visualise it. When Srinath hit it off first and satellite TV began showcasing worldclass bowlers, Sudh-akar Rao says Venkatesh Prasad was delighted merely to play alongside his role model. As Srinath told ESPN: "After Anil and I made our debut, they all began feeling it was possible to make the grade."
To their credit, the boys also grabbed their chances. Says former state player Prakash Rathod: "A lot of credit should go to Viswan-ath. He didn’t push his state’s men into the national side. But he ensured that deserving players got a break. And they proved him right." Srinath and Kumble excelled in the English county last year.
Karnataka, in short, backed the right players. Conversely, says Vedam Jaishankar, cricket correspondent of The Indian Express, Bangalore, other states have tended to back the wrong ones, giving promising Kannadigas time to mature into better players: "Instead of pushing youngsters like batsmen S. Ramesh and S. Sharath, Tamil Nadu continues to plump for W.V. Raman and Robin Singh."
Adds Prasanna: "The way Salil Ankola continues to be projected, it’s only a matter of time before Johnson and D. Ganesh force their way in for good." Ganesh, who has taken 17 wickets in his last three innings, 12 in the Irani Trophy match and five in the Board President’s fixture against Australia, is on the verge of a Test call-up. Johnson who had a sedate debut is being ‘preserved’ for the Tests.
Natural reserves aside, Karnataka’s coaches nurse tender talent well. When Srinath was dropped for the Bangalore Test match against New Zealand in 1993 after a spectacular series in South Africa, to allow Kapil Dev to bag his 431st wicket, KSCA coach Keki Tarapore sat alongside and chatted up the young fast bowler for three whole days: "It isn’t all over yet; your day will come." And Srinath wasn’t even Tarapore’s ward.
But it’s the absence of a competitive club culture that surprises all. Thimmappaiah says club cricket has not thrived in the state because cricket is an expensive game and it’s not easy to run a club. But some who dispute the contention that the players have sprung up in a vacuum: "If clubs alone made cricketers, the Indian side would be full of Mumbai and Chennai players." The few clubs that are there are run with admirable perspicacity. N. Duraiswamy, who has run the Friends Union Cricket Club for 20 years, has barred his 37-year-old nephew from playing for the second team as he’d hamper a budding offspinner’s chances. Instead, he’s allowed to play for the senior team, which includes former state offspinner H. Surendra. The idea is to prepare a junior to replace a senior in two years.
But others say the lack of a club culture has been beneficial. "There’s no prejudice in selection because no one is trying to promote his club’s players. It’s a meritocracy at work here," says one. But it’s not all milk and honey. There’s a flip side.
One selector, a former state selector, who plumped for a southpaw was eased out of the committee. His employer finding no further use for him, transferred him to a remote village. Chastened, the selector is now back. "KSCA bosses make no bones that if you’re good to them, they’ll be good to us," says an insider.
That accounts for the thriving coaching camps and clinics run by Brijesh Patel and Test umpire A.V. Jayaprakash, which turn natural talent into finished articles. "KSCA camps cannot cater to all players. The cricket clinics and camps feed the KSCA with talent. About 120 boys train in my academy through the year and another 400 take part in the summer camps," says Patel.
PRASANNA says some cricketers merely lend their name. But the number of camps, which charge anywhere upwards of Rs 1,000 for a month-long session, continues to grow. Former Test spinner Raghuram Bhat trains kids in Mangalore and Mysore. Ex-stumper Sadanand Viswanath got into the act recently, and promptly brought his wards to watch the Irani Trophy match.
The competitive skills of the kids are honed through three tournaments. Dravid is a Patel student, as are Somasundar, and Ranji opener J. Arun Kumar and stumper Shiruguppi. The last named is said to be an extraordinary prospect who, feels Sudhakhar Rao, could be Mongia’s deputy very soon. More are on the horizon: Mit-hun Berala, who played against the touring New Zealand under-25; H.T. Girish Rao who went to Australia with the under-19 team; and Tilak Naidu, who toured South Africa with the under-19 team, and England with Kailash Gattani’s Star Cricketers.
The resurgence has caused great camaraderie. When Karnataka, needing 240 to win against underdog Kerala in a Ranji Trophy league match early this year, was reeling at 100 for 5, Guha says there were at least a dozen former cricketers hanging around the home team dressing room, ready with advice on how to tide over the crisis. Karnataka won by two wickets.
But there can be no-holds-barred competition if need be, to prevent complacency. In an invitational match between KSCA XI and India Cements after the Indians returned from England, Srinath and Prasad gave Dravid, who plays for Chennai, hell. Prasad, in particular, was so charged up that he was livid when he had the young batsman caught off a no ball. Cements, chasing 114, were bundled out in no time.
Says former India manager P.R. Man Singh: "Cricket in Karnataka is systematically and properly organised. Plain and simple. Young kids have been picked up from the grassroot and groomed for bigger things. Also, its cricketers perhaps work harder than most."
A good example is Sadanand Viswanath. After a near-perfect childhood, his father, a transport fleet owner, went bankrupt and his parents separated. Says he: "I decided to do something for my father. I couldn’t help him financially. I concentrated really hard on achieving something. I wanted to play first-class cricket so that this broken man would’ve something to be proud of."
Prasanna is confident the law of diminishing returns won’t catch up with Karnataka: "We’ve more natural talent than any other state. We follow the game more intrinsically and better than most. I won’t be surprised if eight of them make it to the national team one day."
Will that make Karnataka the country’s cricket capital? "No," says Jaishankar. "A capital attracts talent. Here, it’s driving them away. Kumble, Prasad, Dravid, Johnson all play league cricket in Chen-nai." Adds Rathod: "I know players from Hubli who went to Goa or Maharashtra as they didn’t get opportunities here." Which brings us back to square one: the abundance of natural talent.
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