Jeshwanth excited about new job

BANGALORE: Conceding the need to better the performances of the senior state cricket team, the newly-appointed Karnataka coach K Jeshwanth emphasized a "process-oriented approach" in his new role. "It is all about how you go about a particular thing and thenthe results will follow. We have to build players and form a core unit. Once avibrant atmosphere is created, the remaining things will fall in place," notedthe former state all-rounder. Now in his second year as one of the coaches at the Karnataka Cricket Academy, Jeshwanth said the new two-year assignment will be an extension of the work already undertaken. "The Ranji team has done well with a final and semifinal show in the past two seasons. We have to do better," remarked Jeshwanth, who replaced Sanath Kumar. Sanath had earlier landed a lucrative deal with Ranji runners-up Baroda. It is the second stint for the 46—year-old as the coach of the senior side, after handling Karnataka during two seasons in 2004 and 2005. "If my memory serves me right, I am the first coach to be given a second term in the state's cricket history. The team I had earlier was a lot different from the current one. That team had quite a lot of established, experienced players and guys like Robin Uthappa and Vinay Kumar were coming in. Now the duo is more experienced and the team has quite a few good strikers in Manish Pandey, Ganesh Satish, Amit Verma and KB Pawan. The fast bowling department too looks good with Abhimanyu Mithun and S Arvind in it. (Sunil) Joshi may be still there. So I am looking forward to work with all of them," said Jeshwanth, popularly known in cricket circles as 'Jes'. Asked whether he had to follow the modern process of PowerPoint presentations and the like to get selected, Jeshwanth answered in the negative and added the KSCA top brass was confident of his capabilities. "I had already worked as a coach under Brijesh Patel. I have played a lot of cricket with Anil (Kumble), (Javagal) Srinath, Venky (Venkatesh Prasad), Vijay (Bharadwaj) and Rahul Dravid. So when they asked me whether I could take up the responsibility, I accepted it," remarked Jeshwanth. On the financialpart of the deal, Jeshwanth said: "I have not discussed it yet. But I ampassionate about coaching and the job in itself is a great reward for me. Themonetary benefit is secondary and just because the market has gone up somewhereelse, everything should not be money-centric. I am a firm believer that you willget what you deserve," said the new coach, who left his job with Vijaya Bankthree years back to pursue full-time coaching. Queried on whetherthe focus will remain on youth despite some good showing in the local circuit bysenior and out-of-favour faces, Jeshwanth said: "I will be flexible in allmatters. But I am for specialists — batsmen make runs and bowlers takewickets." Jeshwanth is yet to decide on his deputy. "(Somashekhar)Shiriguppi has done well (as assistant coach). But it is the association's call.I am happy to work with anyone. If you ask me whether I can handle batting, Ishould say I have scored more than 4,000 runs in first class cricket," said theleft-hand bat and left-arm spinner.