Karnataka’s export quality in demand

State cricketers have been one of the most sought-after pros.

The collective hygiene of a state’s cricketing structure and its successful management is usually reflected in their consistency with winning on the domestic circuit and the number of names they can push out to the grander cause, aka the Indian team.

By that, Karnataka has been one of the most successful domestic outfits of all time even if the last decade of not winning the Ranji Trophy is taken in the stride. But, in Karnataka’s case, there is another metric by which you can infer the quality of its grassroots programme, and the versatility and value of the players who come from this petridish of super talent.

Karnataka’s players have been among the most fancied professional cricketers on the domestic circuit for a while, but if there ever was a season which was emblematic of their acumen, it is this one for there are ten players donning jerseys of other states. In some cases, they even have become the vertebrae of these said sides.

Take Karun Nair for example. The man finished the Vijay Hazare Trophy with 779 runs at an average of 389.50 for Vidarbha. Mind you, that average stood in the vicinity of 700 until his dismissal for 27 against Karnataka in the final. While he isn’t Vidarbha’s red-ball skipper, he surely played his part in the white-ball leg as the captain.

The case is much the same with R Samarth. After being ignored by selectors due to lack of solid performances, the 32-year-old took his talents to Uttarakhand, and this season he scored 649 runs from seven Ranji Trophy matches at an average of 54.08.

While leaving out players of this calibre could be perceived as the selectors being hasty in their decision-making, Karnataka chief selector J Abhiram insisted that the management has their eyes on the future and will continue to make some tough calls.

“Take KV Siddharth for instance. He wanted assurance that he was going to play in all three formats,” started off Abhiram. “I told him he was fine for red-ball cricket but I couldn’t promise him a spot in the other two formats. So he moved.

“See, I don’t feel bad about players asking us for NOCs and moving away because we have so much talent in this State. We’re now looking at the rise of (R) Smaran and (KV) Aneesh and if we continued to keep people like Manish (Pandey), who don’t have a future, we wouldn’t have seen these boys rise. These are not tough decisions, these are decisions to ensure the health of Karnataka cricket and as a result the health of Indian cricket.”

While this level of clarity is refreshing, Ganesh insists it wasn’t the case in the past. It’s a bone of contention which is supposed to have frayed K Gowtham and Manish’s more recent relationship with the association or at least some of the members in the management.

“The way players are treated can be a point of concern, but at the end of the day, it’s about what’s best for the growth of the game,” Ganesh concluded.