Three magical deliveries put Karthik Meiyappan in record books on Tuesday. Featuring for the United Arab Emirates in the T20 World Cup in Australia, the 22-year-old leg-spinner earned his first-ever hat trick against Sri Lanka.
Even though UAE failed to capitalise on his feat, Karthik became the fifth man in history after Brett Lee, Curtis Campher, Wanindu Hasaranga and Kagiso Rabada to claim a hat-trick in a T20 World Cup.
As the family watched Karthik’s feat on television at their home in Dubai, his mother Selvi Subbiah remembered those days in Chennai when she would travel to MRC Nagar in RA Puram to drop Karthik to the Chettinad Vidyashram. Karthik was in first standard, and one day, while picking him up from the school, Selvi realised that the youngster was talking about chess.
On their way back home, Karthik asked Selvi quite a few questions about chess and revealed that he was learning it from one of his friends, who was also their neighbour.
Karthik with his mother, Selvi Subbiah and father, Meiyappan Palaniyappan. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Selvi was happy to see her son talk about a sport, but initially, she thought it was just one of those passing phases. But a few months later, when the family shifted to Dubai, she realised that her son was actually hooked to the sport. “He would play chess at home and often talk about it. Looking at his interest, I realised that it would be good to send him to a chess centre,” Selvi says.
While that did not happen in Dubai, Selvi ensured that Karthik was enrolled in a chess club, when she was back in Coimbatore, a year later. “I was pregnant with my daughter and that’s when Karthik and I returned back to India. So, around that time, I admitted him to a chess club near our home and he really liked it,” Selvi says.
She would often accompany Karthik to local chess tournaments in Coimbatore. “He enjoyed playing the game, but things changed after we shifted back to the UAE again after my daughter was born,” Selvi says. “We would live in a gated society and kids would play cricket. Most of them were of his age and they would all play together. As a kid, he could not remember names and would often forget the names of his friends, but I observed that he could remember names of each and every cricketer…”
Back then, Selvi would live in Dubai with her son and daughter, while her husband Meiyappan Palaniappan would visit the family once a week from Abu Dhabi. Being a club-level cricketer himself, Palaniappan had a soft corner for the game and one day, while watching Karthik play, he told Selvi that it would be a ‘wise decision to send the kid to a cricket coaching centre’.
Selvi was initially hesitant, but hailing from a family of cricketers - two of her brothers are also club-level cricketers in Tamil Nadu - she gave in. That’s how Karthik’s journey started. The family did not have much clue about the cricketing facilities available in Dubai, but with help of friends and locals, he managed to enroll himself to a cricket centre. “Slowly, things fell in place and before we knew, Karthik was in love with the sport and wanted to take up the sport as a career,” Selvi says.
While Palaniappan was supportive, Selvi did not want her son to walk into an unknown territory. “Initially, I was against his decision because I did not know whether he was good enough to play for India. Back in those days, there was no IPL and we did not know whether he would make it to the UAE team either. So, I wanted him to have a Plan B…”
So, after completing school, Karthik pursued accountancy in college. That also helped him to focus on his cricket as he could manage the two. “When he made it to the U-19 team, we realised that he had potential. His dad was very supportive and even ensured that he got good advice from a few cricketers in India,” Selvi says.
In 2016, Karthik travelled to Chennai to train under the watchful eyes of former India cricketers Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and M. Venkataramana. “I have known the family for years because Karthik’s father and I played club cricket together in Madurai, so a few years ago, he came here to train for a few days,” Venkataramana, who is now the coach of Tamil Nadu, says.
While that trip was about guiding him with his action and fine tuning a few things, Venkataramana again worked with Karthik earlier this year, after he was named in the UAE side for the T20 World Cup qualifying rounds. “He came to Chennai for about 15 days. We worked little bit on his alignment and release points and the boy was very sincere,” Venkataramana says.
While his commitments at the Tamil Nadu Cricket Academy and the state team did not allow Venkataramana to dedicate too much time to Karthik, he ensured that his assistant coaches took care of the youngster. “At times when I was busy, the assistant coach, who is also a spinner, spent time with him and worked hard. The boy was sincere and we offered him a few practice matches, so it was a good stint for him. He improved a lot on his confidence and he would work hard and come back stronger,” Venkataramana says.
Just like his family, even the Tamil Nadu coach is happy to see Karthik creating history in the T20 World Cup and hopes that the youngster keeps improving his game.
A couple of years ago, when the IPL was held in the UAE, Karthik was one of the net bowlers for Royal Challengers Bangalore and while bowling to the likes of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, the youngster hoped to play international cricket soon. And finally, hard work paid off and the historical outing against Sri Lanka ensured that the youngster got all the attention.
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