The Hindu : Sport : Sharath's 100th Ranji match

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Sunday, Dec 17, 2006
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Sharath's 100th Ranji match

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Super League Group `A' game against Saurashtra at Rajkot beginning on Sunday will be Tamil Nadu mainstay S. Sharath's 100th Ranji Trophy appearance. Since making his debut 12 days after his 20th birthday in 1992 against Andhra, the left-hander has broken most State batting records in a career that has established him as a giant in domestic cricket.

"When I started my career, I never thought I'd play 100 games," says Sharath, who will be the first Tamil Nadu cricketer to this landmark. "I never thought I'd break all these records one day."

The list of Tamil Nadu Ranji records Sharath owns is impressive: most matches (99), most runs (6390), first past 6000, most centuries (22). It's even more impressive if you consider his career was very nearly terminated by injury.

"It was December 7, 1993 — I met with a motorcycle accident," says Sharath with the detachment time confers. "I had multiple fractures in my left leg, and I was out of the game for eight months."

Unable to watch the game, Sharath moved temporarily to Bangalore "to get away from it". Sessions of physiotherapy and sand running helped him regain strength in his fractured leg. But, he had to remodel his batting to factor in the weakened back foot. "I had to curtail some strokes, and change others. I started to cut by transferring the weight on to my front foot instead of getting back and across."

Tough character

The eight months of recovery toughened him mentally — "nothing could shake me after that" — and with his refurbished technique, Sharath began amassing runs: 753, 917, 774, 586, 500, and 1012 First Class runs in each of the seasons between 94-95 and 99-00. Despite criticism that he has hung around too long thus denying the youngsters a spot, his averages in the last three seasons — 45.30, 54.50, 35.75 — show he isn't excess baggage.

Now 34, and in his final first class season, Sharath hopes to amend the one blip in an otherwise excellent CV: a missing Ranji title. "If you realise you aren't being considered for national selection, you must immediately shift focus to the State," says a man who was unlucky not to represent the country. "That was my big motivation. I've been a member of winning sides at every level except Ranji: that's been a disappointment."

Only an effort of considerable character and unequivocal intent can save Tamil Nadu's current season, which has begun disappointingly. Sharath may have already done enough to be remembered as he wishes: "as someone who has contributed with passion over a period of time"; pulling his weight to help turn things around will be the perfect way to say goodbye.

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