CHENNAI: There is plenty of Chennai in Karthik Meiyappan. To start with, he is a Chennai Super Kings fan like million others; a diehard of Thalapathi Vijay; loves mother’s dosa over everything else for breakfast; loves the beach; his favourite pastime is watching Tamil movies; played chess at age-group level, and more importantly plays cricket and his leg-spin is already the talk of the ongoing T20 World Cup in Australia.
Despite all the Chennai connections, it is Dubai that he calls his home. From the time he moved to Dubai after his father Meiyappan received a job offer, the Emirate has embraced him with both hands. From playing club-level cricket to making it to the Under-19 United Arab Emirates side for the 2020 ICC Under-19 World Cup in South Africa, on Tuesday, the 22-year-old grabbed a hat-trick at the ongoing T20 World Cup against Sri Lanka. Although UAE couldn’t go on to win the match and is facing an early exit, Karthik has already made heads turn.
It has been a remarkable journey for Karthik, whose first love was chess. Growing up in Coimbatore, he won top prizes in district-level events and his life centred around the 64-squares. According to Meiyappan, more than cricket it was tennis that Karthik preferred while playing outdoors.
“Actually, I picked up cricket only when we moved to Dubai,” Karthik says. “I didn’t have any opponents or friends to play chess with and since my father and my uncle had played a fair bit of cricket at the university level, cricket just happened to me. I started playing club cricket, then gradually moved up the ranks and by 16 was in the UAE U-19 team. And now, here I am, playing in the World Cup,” Karthi told this daily.
In 2014, when Meiyappan found cricket to be Karthik’s calling, he didn’t think twice before sending his son to Chennai. This was the phase where Karthik, who began to bowl leg-spin by then, got a month to hone his skills under former India cricketers Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and M Venkataramana at a camp organized by Sports Mechanics that provides data support to Team India. If cricketing skills were improved at the camp, according to Meiyappan, Karthik would spend an equally good amount of time at former India trainer Ramji Srinivasan’s fitness studio which was then called Quantum Leap (Sports Dynamix).
“I don’t know how and why I started bowling leg-spin, maybe because my father too was a leg-spinner. But once I decided to pursue cricket as a profession, I wanted to give everything towards it. To be honest, I even thought about coming back to Chennai and playing here, but my father made me believe, I have a better chance here. After the age-group level, my plan was to come to Chennai and attend college there and play cricket. But I guess, my father’s decision to hold me back is vindicated,” Karthik says.
That Karthik was looking to move to Chennai to pursue cricket professionally isn’t surprising. In fact, it is common among those settlements in UAE, where good players prefer moving to their country of birth or elsewhere in search of regular opportunities. “I’ve had friends who I grew up playing age-group cricket move to Tamil Nadu and featuring in TNPL and others who have gone to some other country. Even though I had the offer to play for Sussex (English county), with cricket becoming more and more attractive in the UAE, we as a family decided to stay here and pursue the sport. It is growing so much and every year, the number of international cricket we play is increasing so much that we don’t even get the time to feature in our domestic league,” Karthik says.
Karthik also benefitted when UAE became the home of cricket during the pandemic years. With the IPL bandwagon shifting to the UAE, in 2020, he spent the entire season with Royal Challengers Bangalore as a net bowler. And in 2021, when UAE hosted the second half of the IPL, Karthik got a chance to be with Chennai Super Kings.
“I came down during my off-season to work with Venkataraman Sir. In the past couple of years, I’ve grown immensely as a spinner. After the U-19 World Cup, to be able to spend time with RCB in the IPL as a net bowler was such an enriching experience. Not very often would you get a chance to rub shoulders with the best and learn how they prepare for a match. And then in 2021, I got a chance to be with the Super Kings, which was again a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Had a chance to meet and speak with (MS) Dhoni, who was very accommodating and ready to share, which in itself was great for a youngster like me.”
Before the T20 World Cup, Karthik played a key role in UAE’s Qualifier rounds. And after sealing the team’s World Cup spot, on the insistence of UAE coach Robin Singh, Karthik came to Chennai again to work with Venkataramana for a month with Mylapore Recreation Club, a First Division team.
“Robin sir wanted me to work during the off-season, and I thought it would be beneficial before the T20 World Cup. Just to make little changes here and there and to get going was nice. And more importantly, I would always jump at every possible opportunity to be in Chennai. My extended family and grandparents are here and I love the city. In fact, during the stay I also got a chance to experience Chennai’s FDFS culture with the release of Beast,” says Karthik.