Minding sport as serious business

Aby Jose, TNN

Ganesh started as a footballer, switched to hockey and made his name with his stickwork before stepping into the challenging realm of sports administration.

He started as a footballer, switched to hockey and made his name with his stickwork before stepping into the challenging realm of sports administration. Having turned 65 in July, the former army man still relishes taking up the gauntlet and is now serving as the CEO of Karnataka State Cricket Association. The only constant – from his “exciting and colourful” childhood in his native Suntikoppa in Kodagu district to a hectic life as administrator – has been an unflinching passion for sports, “of any kind”.

As a kid, Ganesh put football before anything else, even studies. “It remains my first love,” says Ganesh. “I dreamt of becoming a footballer. After joining the Army, an unexpected turn in my life, I wanted to join the football team. But my small physique didn’t help and I was rejected.”

“Hockey was my next choice. I was fast and my football skills were utilized for hockey. Though I hadn’t played the game, I had watched it closely in my hometown where hockey is so competitive that I might not have even entered the local family tournaments,” says he. Thus at age 19, Ganesh took to hockey.

Though he played only five years of international hockey, Ganesh excelled at it and became the captain as well. The summit was the 1973 World Cup, where he led India to the final only to lose to Holland on penalty strokes. Reflecting on that narrow defeat, Ganesh says: “To this day, I repent my decision not to have taken the stroke myself… When Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni took up the challenge in the World Cup final against Sri Lanka, I became more aware of that lost opportunity.” That year he was bestowed with the prestigious Arjuna Award. Ganesh was also part of the silver-winning teams at Asiads of 1970 and 1974 and featured in the World XI in 1972. After leaving the international circuit, Ganesh lived in Naples for four years, playing for Levante Insurance.

The year 1978 provided another turning point as he joined as hockey coach at National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala and in 1981, joined the Karnataka government as Special Officer (Sports) during which he pioneered the concepts of Sports School and Sports Hostel. “I wanted to get into player management because players’ issues were not looked into. Indian hockey suffered because of that,” he says. “An administrator should understand the difficulties of sportspersons. When a paper comes to me for clearance, I imagine my photo affixed at the bottom and then, it becomes my issue,” states the NIS diploma holder.

A significant chapter in his career started with his appointment as Deputy Director at Sports Authority of India (SAI) in 1986. At SAI, Ganesh went on to hold crucial posts, sometimes even simultaneously. “I have always dwelt on the need for a special cadre in the Civil Services for sports because it needs special training,” he says.

In between, he was deputed to coach the national team, mainly in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1990 World Cup in Lahore. The debacle in Pakistan cost Ganesh his coaching job but that World Cup did throw up some serious impediments. “We played before a hostile Pakistani crowd. Matches featuring us were halted several times due to crowd trouble. Bricks and stones were thrown at my players. Also, we were not allowed to watch other matches at the stadium, citing security reasons and were asked to remain in the hotel. Once the tournament director told me that I could pull out of the tourney but we decided to stay for all our matches. It was a tough yet brave decision,” recalls Ganesh.

A gold eluded Ganesh in Olympics, World Cup and Asiad during his playing career but the consolation came in 1998 when India pocketed the yellow metal at the Bangkok Asiad with Ganesh masterminding the triumph as the chairman of the coaching committee. “I thad two conditions: I’d have a say in the selection of the coach and players and second, I wanted the camp in Bangalore under my supervision. During the camp, there was a move from the authorities to drop Dhanraj Pillay but I resisted it. With the likes of him and a clutch of talented players in the ranks, we triumphed in Bangkok,” he recalls.

It’s another story that the same set of seniors who fetched glory were unceremoniously sacked just after the triumph and Ganesh reckons that it was “an opportunity lost for Indian hockey and the nation hasn’t recovered yet from that setback”.

Ganesh had to fight against fate in his family life too. His only son, Aiyappa, passed away in 1997 at the age of 20. “My wife and I have fond memories of our son. He was suffering from myopathy. We took him around the world for treatment. But no medicine could have cured the disease. The death came as a blessing because otherwise he could have suffered a lot,” says Ganesh.