Goud, batting engine of Railways

Yere Goud, a hard-working mofussil talent, may not be as celebrated a cricketer as his contemporary Sunil Joshi for what the latter went on to achieve at the highest level. But Goud's story is no less stirring.

Where the Gadag-born Joshi had to travel by train every morning to Hubballi to hone his skills, Goud, hailing from an impoverished Raichur, had to take an even more arduous route to realise his dreams. Goud had to shuttle between Raichur and Bengaluru constantly to pursue his passion. He would train four days a week in Bengaluru before returning home for years.

The hard yards he put in paid dividends when he made his debut for Karnataka in the 1994-95 season. However, he could only play three games. Sensing it would be very difficult to get a consistent run in a talent-packed Karnataka side, Goud started looking elsewhere. Rail Wheel Factory offered him a job and with the added incentive of getting more games in a season, the obdurate right-hand batsman immediately accepted the offer.

Like constructing a good knock, Goud laid a decent foundation in the opening two seasons before turning out to be the bedrock of Railways' batting for a decade — India speed great Javagal Srinath called him the “Rahul Dravid of Railways batting”.

Goud’s standout period was between 2001-03, where he scored 2070 runs in 23 games. It was a time when Railways dominated the domestic scene, winning the 2001-02 and 2004-05 Ranji Trophies — their only successes in the country’s premier domestic first-class competition. As Ranji Trophy champions, Railways competed in Irani Cup against Rest of India and they annexed that too.

That dominance saw Railways’ Sanjay Bangar and Murali Kartik graduate to the Indian Test team but not Goud. “The Indian batting line-up was very strong then," Goud tells DH. "You had (Virender) Sehwag, Rahul (Dravid), Sachin (Tendulkar), Sourav (Ganguly) and (VVS) Laxman. It was very hard for anyone to make a breakthrough. Secondly, selectors largely judged you on what you did during the big games. For example, even if I scored 800 runs in a season but failed in a Ranji semifinal or Irani Cup, I was ignored. What I did during the season wasn’t noticed. That one game mattered a lot and many players couldn’t graduate to the national side because of that."

Goud, though, never complained about it. “I have no regrets,” he had said during his farewell ceremony at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in 2012. “I gave it my best shot but it didn’t happen. I’m happy with what I’ve achieved in my career,” he had added.

Goud, now the Karnataka coach, maintains the same sentiment even today. “For a boy from Raichur, with barely any cricketing facilities back then, to go on and play over 100 first-class matches for Railways alone, win two Ranji Trophy titles and then return home to captain a powerhouse team like Karnataka... I couldn’t have asked for more when I first picked up a bat as a young kid,” the 48-year-old says.

While Goud did crave for an India cap, he took great pride and joy in performing for Railways.

“It would have been a dream-come-true to represent the country but I have no regrets. I’m glad that I was the backbone of Railways’ batting and we won five titles. All my runs are from the elite group and considering many of Railways matches were played on under-prepared pitches, I’m happy to have averaged 46 for them. There’s no point in being bitter, you’ll end flushing whatever you’ve achieved. I’m at peace and looking ahead in life,” the soft-spoken Goud adds.

***

“Also, there weren’t many India A games as we see now. Nowadays, there are shadow tours. We had very few back then. Had there been more A games, I would have had a chance to showcase my talent. More India A games would have given me self-belief.

"Finally, I think I matured very late as a batsman — was 28, 29 years. Given the rich talent then, I had to make big runs when I was 22-23 which wasn't the case,” concluded Goud, who represented his home state Karnataka in 17 first-class games.