HS Sharath's life of unquiet desperation

‘Bowling, Mandya!’ they had all shouted once. When he wasn’t in his bowling stride, he would offer the most sincere smile to the spurring, the small-town boy in him enjoyed the mention of his small town. Youth plastered with naivety, and a strapping frame validated by state selectors.

Barring the frame and remnants of credulity, all else is gone now. And HS Sharath is livid: a life of desperation, but the unquiet kind.

At 28 years old, the paceman with 86 wickets from 28 first-class games is itching to get back into the side. He hasn’t played a game for Karnataka in any format since 2015, but he has been showing hustle in local leagues to inspire a look, or so he thinks.

Also, he says he’s as fast as he used to be and is fitter than he was. Why then did he not even make the list of 35 probables the Karnataka State Cricket Association released a few days ago?

“Even (Rahul) Dravid sir doesn’t know why I am not getting chances,” rues Sharath. “I went from being the bowler the team would go to when the seniors couldn’t get breakthroughs to being ignored from the probables list. I don’t understand anything.”

“I couldn’t have gotten that bad that quickly,” he says before breaking down.

Even as he is composing himself, he reels off numbers from the local circuit and says he has done everything he can to position himself for a comeback.

Unfortunately, going by what the selectors and the team’s current bowling coach have to say, that’s not happening anytime soon, and given that time is of the essence, it probably never will.

“He is a good talent,” says Sreenath Arvind. “..but the trend has changed. As far as we are concerned, the youngsters are more capable of making an impact. Frankly, the youngsters, the new generation, are far superior.”

A rather blunt assessment from a coach who is usually discerning. Fazal Khaleel seconded Arvind’s take on Sharath. Only, the chairman of selectors, showed some diplomacy in shutting the door on the paceman’s Karnataka career.

“Our focus is on blooding youngsters to build a solid future,” says Khaleel. “Sharath is old and we already have a few ageing players in the team. We want experienced pacers to show the youngsters how to go about things before they move on too. It’s something we have always done to ensure a clean transition from one generation to the next."

“As for Sharath, the ship has sailed,” he adds

Perhaps it was the shoulder injury in 2015 or the ankle niggle from a later date, Sharath couldn’t have picked a worse time to miss games for Karnataka. With Arvind retiring and R Vinay Kumar looking beyond the state, a spot was ripe for the taking. Instead, the pace unit was A Mithun, Ronit More and a young Prasiddh Krishna. Prateek Jain came on later, but by then Sharath’s stocks had plummeted.

"Sometimes when you get injured and when those replacement players begin to do better than expected you end up losing your place in the side. That’s unavoidable,” says a former Karnataka captain. “But you can’t give up. Sharath was dangerous when he came on. He was very hard to play.”

Mansur Ali Khan, Karnataka’s bowling coach when Sharath made his debut in 2012, insists that Sharath is still very good and is bemused by his exclusion too.

Khaleel eventually brings up rumours of Sharath considering offers from other states to pursue cricket as a professional. Sharath responds with: “Yes, I got offers but I’m from Mandya. I can’t play for another state!”

Rarely is there space for small-town innocence and/or radical loyalty in the cut-throat world of cricket.

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