Vishwanath's hand in shaping the fabric of Karnataka cricket

"He knew I could play the cut - square and late - well, and he gave me little bits on how to make it better. Nobody can become a master at any shot (laughs), but he sure tried to get me there,” GR Viswanath tells DH on Friday.

Only a few hours prior to this conversation, PS Vishwanath - one of GRV’s earliest coaches - passed away. He was 96 years old, and of those years, most of them were spent shaping the fabric of cricket in Karnataka without making himself seen.

Besides representing the erstwhile Mysore state, Vishwanath also played for Karnataka and South Zone during his playing career. But his greatest contribution wasn’t so much as a player as it was as a coach and an administrator.

“I used to play with the Spartans in Chamarajpet when I was very young, and my mentor Chandrasekhar Shetty used to stay in the house rented to him by Vishwanath, that was my first introduction to him,” says GRV.

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“But when I started going to the camp in the Mysore State Sports Council, he was one of the coaches there, and he was such a kind man. He was always about cricket, cricket, cricket. I learnt a lot from him when I was young, and also to have someone like him gives you a sense of how you should behave and the discipline you must have to succeed.”

GRV went onto play 91 Tests for 6080 runs with wrists of mercury. Safe to assume, Vishwanath did his bit.

“He knew how to extract talent from the boys, and he was very good at recognising talent. It was funny, he never spoke to me about how good I was, he was always telling my team-mates that I was good,’ says GRV. “In fact, I just spoke to his son and he was also saying that he (Vishwanath) was talking me up even recently. Such a good soul.”

But GRV wasn’t the only one Vishwanath helped mould.

Brijesh Patel, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Joshi among others he helped as a coach and eventually as the vice-president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association.

“He was my coach when I was 14 years old,” says Brijesh Patel. “He was one of the few coaches in Karnataka who focussed on mofussil areas. He would travel everywhere to find talent. He taught us the fundamentals so well, that we had to improve.”

Joshi says: “He was one the most sincere coaches you will find. He was all about being disciplined. Very soft-spoken man with a heart of gold. I really miss him.”

Vishwanath also played an integral role in Dravid finding his way to Keke Tarepore, a series of events that would eventually lead to him becoming one of the greatest batsmen India has ever seen.

Vishwanath, who happened to be Sharan Dravid’s - Rahul’s father - recreational badminton partner, started a summer camp at the KSCA to ensure young talent such as Rahul’s doesn’t go to waste. Upon induction, Vishwanath directed Rahul to Tarapore’s ‘net’.

The rest, as cliched as it sounds, is history.