10 things to know about Team India's coaching candidate Dodda Ganesh

Earlier today, it was revealed that six applications were received by the BCCI for the role of Indian cricket team’s coach that is set to be vacant as the current coach, Anil Kumble’s tenure is set to come to an end after the ongoing Champions Trophy. The list of applicants included the likes of Virender Sehwag, Lalchand Rajput, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus, Dodda Ganesh and Kumble himself. Dodda Ganesh drew a lot of attention as most of the fans didn’t know about the candidate.

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Dodda Ganesh, who was born on June 30, 1973, was a right-arm medium pacer and a right-handed batsman, who played in five Tests and one ODI for India in 1997. After making his Test debut against South Africa at Cape Town in January 1997, he managed to take only 5 wickets in four matches at an average of 57.40 before he was dropped from the Indian team in April. In his only ODI, he took 1/20 in the five overs he bowled against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo.

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He played first-class cricket for Karnataka and has picked up 365 wickets in 104 matches at an average of just below 30. In the 89 List A matches he played, he accounted for 128 wickets. Though he did well for his domestic sides after getting dropped from the team, he was not called back to the national team again.

Let us take a look some of the unknown things about the formerIndian pacer.

#1 Dodda Ganesh started out as a wicketkeeper and an opening batsman.

#2 It was Gundappa Viswanath, who spotted Ganesh’s bowling talent and enrolled him at Tarapore club.

#3 His idols were former Indian wicketkeeper Sadanand Viswanath and all-rounder Ravi Shastri.

#4 Ganesh was not well versed with English and Hindi during his playing days. Venkatesh Prasad had to help him out with translation when the duo spent their time together at the MRF Pace academy.

#5 Coming from a humble background, former international umpire AV Jayaprakash waived the tuition fees in his cricket academy and gave him a bat.

#6 When Ganesh was with the Indian team abroad, Srinath used to get him a pair of shoes from abroad and Kumble would give him clothes.

#7 Former South African batsman Gary Kirsten was Ganesh’s maiden International wicket. Coincidentally, Kirsten was also a coach of the Indian team.

#8 In October 2016, he participated as a Contestant on the Kannada reality show “BiggBoss 4”. He managed to survive for just 2 weeks.

#9 He was keen on joining politics and in 2007, he became a member of Janata Dal (Secular) led by former Prime Minister of India H. D. Deve Gowda.

#10 He was appointed the coach of Goa for the 2012-2013 season.