If Doddanarasiah Ganesh comes across as a remarkably down-to-earth, grounded individual untouched by the trappings of fame or the enormity of his accomplishments, it is because he is all that and more. Alongside Vijay Bharadwaj, he is comfortably the most influential player Karnataka have produced at the first-class level in the last 25 years, and while it will be naive to think that Ganesh himself is not aware of that, he wears that sobriquet with pride rather than arrogance.
In one of the many cruel, inexplicable twists of fate, the man who always placed team above self was denied the one individual accomplishment he desperately sought -- 300 first-class wickets for Karnataka. Typically, though, Ganesh has already shrugged off the disappointment of having been ignored by the State during the last domestic season; much before he announced his retirement from competitive cricket last week, the 33-year-old had charted the course his future will take. Coaching for the next three years will give away to an active plunge into politics too, as he puts it, 'serve the people.'

International record
His international record is as unimpressive and frugal as his first-class record is awe-inspiring. "I was only 22 when I was picked to tour South Africa," Ganesh reflects on the events of late 1996. "It wasn't as if I was raw. But I think I wasn't all that mature at that tme. International cricket came too early to me. If I had been selected to play for India after a couple of more years, I could have served the team better because by then, I had matured as a person and grown as a bowler."
Ganesh played just four Tests -- in South Africa and the West Indies -- and was lost to Indian cricket forever when he was left out without playing a single game in the Independence Cup one-day tournament at home in the summer of 1997. "I was devastated," he says, without a trace of melodrama. "Had I been dropped after the tour of the West Indies, it may not have affected me so much. But to be dropped after the Independence Cup, a tournament where I didn't get a chance to bowl at all -- that shattered me. I couldn't eat or sleep for a whole month, it began to affect me physically as well. I didn't step out of my house for a month."
Then, characteristically, he shook off the disappointment and slipped into the role of the Karnataka pace spearhead, forced to shoulder the burden in the continued absence of the likes of Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Anil Kumble and Sunil Joshi. "I love Karnataka, I love playing for the State," he observes. "I knew that after being dropped from the Indian team, the knives might have been out for me within the State too. I had to perform, I had to win matches for the team, to show people that I belonged. My philosophy has been simple -- on the cricket field, anything is possible if you put in the effort. Be it with bat, ball or in the field, you can turn things around so long as you don't give up. For those six or seven hours at the ground, I forget everything else. All my focus is on the game, on how we can improve and perform as a team. If I wasn't involved in the action, I tried to gee up my team-mates. Positive thinking can help you pull off amazing things."
It was that positive thinking that kept him going despite being overlooked last season by Karnataka. He tried to play for Goa, but by then, the BCCI's registration cut-off had passed. Ganesh took over as tehnical coach for the Goans, and so impressed have they been with him -- as he is with the wealth of talent in the tiny State -- that the coming season will see him as Goa's professional, full-time coach. In the interim, alongside good friend David Johnson, he is busy identifying and grooming young pace talent under the KSCA Academy's umbrella.

Pace attack
"My dream is that we must have a pace attack of the sort we had in the mid 90s -- Srinath, Prasad, Johnson and Ganesh. Whatever I am today is because of cricket, and because of Karnataka," Ganesh says. "I owe it to the State to give something back. There is plenty of talent waiting to be tapped. I will see how this season goes with Goa. If they do well, I might consider staying on as coach for another year. After that, maybe Karnataka, if they give me a chance. But three years from now, it will be active politics because I feel youngsters have a huge role to play in serving the people."
Through his climb up the ladder of stardom, Ganesh has not lost sight of his humble beginnings, or the numerous individuals that bailed him out of tight corners with either tangible assistance, or just a word or two of support and encouragement. He never became the superstar Indian pace bowler, but you suspect that would have made him less happier than being known as the Karnataka spearhead.