Yere Goud announces retirement

Yere Goud, the former Railways and Karnataka batsman, has announced his retirement, bringing to an end a 17-year first-class career.

Goud, 40, made his debut for his home state Karnataka in 1994-95, before moving to Railways for a decade helping them win Ranji titles in 2001-02 and 2004-05. He won five other major titles, including three Irani Cups, one Duleep Trophy and a Ranji one-day trophy.

In 2006-07, Goud returned to Karnataka as captain for a couple of seasons, before moving back to Railways where he played three more years. He became a member of a group of less than 20 players to win 100 Ranji caps in 2008. Goud ends his career with 134 first-class matches, in which he scored 7650 runs at 45.53.

In 2001-02, a season in which he topped the Ranji charts with 761 runs, he was a part of the India A side, but he couldn't progress to the Indian national team. "I have no regrets about that," he said, at a farewell ceremony at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. "I gave it my best shot but it didn't happen."

Like another Ranji stalwart who resigned this season, Sunil Joshi, Goud also hails from a small Karnataka town. "I used to travel from Raichur (his hometown, in northern Karnataka) to Bangalore for four years for coaching camps with (former India batsman) Brijesh Patel and Imitiaz Ahmed," he said, recalling his early struggles. Post-retirement, he wants to get into umpiring and coaching, and also hoped he could help cricketers from small towns to make it big.

Senior officials of the KSCA, including the president Anil Kumble and secretary Javagal Srinath, were on hand to pay tribute to Goud. "It is not easy coming from a mofussil town, and then excelling in cricket," Kumble, who was Karnataka captain on Goud's debut, said. "He was technically extremely sound, both as a batsman and a fielder, and his bowling was always handy."

To highlight Goud's commitment, Kumble pointed to Goud's time in charge of Karnataka. "Even as captain, he would stand at silly point and short leg, though many people have a temptation to put a junior cricketer in that position."

Perhaps the biggest compliment of the day, though, came from Srinath. "He is the Rahul Dravid of the Railways team," Srinath said, referring to Goud's consistency in domestic cricket. Both Srinath and Kumble regretted that Goud played only 17 first-class matches for Karnataka, and that he wasn't part of the state side for a longer period.

There was a surprise in store at the end of the ceremony, as Goud was presented with a Phd thesis on him, titled "A case study on a cricketer: Yere Goud, his personality and achievements."