UAE's hat-trick hero from Chennai Karthik Meiyappan reveals Tamil conversation with wicketkeeper

Karthik Meiyappan from Chennai, who plays for UAE, returned with the figures of 3/19 in his four-over spell in the game against Sri Lanka at the T20 World Cup.

By CX Staff Writer Oct 18, 2022, 21:18 IST

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Karthik also revealed that he and Vriitya Aravind keep talking to each other in Tamil during matches.

The United Arab Emirates might have lost their game against Sri Lanka by a huge margin of 79 runs, but their leg-spinner Karthik Meiyappan hogged all the limelight after picking up a hattrick. The young leg-spinner dismissed Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Charith Asalanka and Dasun Shanaka off consecutive deliveries of the 15th over of the innings to register a first hattrick of the ongoing T20 World Cup.

While speaking after the match, Chennai-born Karthik revealed how he told to wicketkeeper Vriitya Aravind about his plans for the hattrick delivery in Tamil. The duo belong to the same city and often converse in their mother tongue.

“I was clear with my plans before the hat-trick ball. But I always have a chat with the wicketkeeper. We are from the same city, which is why we spoke in our language, Tamil. We had a conversation before that - what I'm going to do right and I just delivered what I wanted to,” Meiyappan said in the press conference after the match.

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It is pretty fun having Aravind behind the stumps to talk in Tamil, says Karthik Meiyappan, who hails from Chennai

Perhaps, Karthik Meiyappan also went on to reveal that he and Aravind often talk to each other in Tamil during matches. He also felt that speaking in Tamil to Aravind helps in having an edge over the opposition batters who don’t understand their language. Moreover, the duo also did the same during the game against Netherlands.

“That is pretty fun to have someone behind the stumps who talks the same language as you do because that gives you kind of an edge over your opponents and you can communicate in your own language, which is going wild around the past few days from the first game against Netherlands.

“And we personally enjoy doing that because I get a lot of help from him behind the stumps. To talk in your own language makes it much easier on the field,” Karthik further added. Having lost both their matches, UAE have more or less no hopes of making it to the Super 12 round.

However, they would be keen on ending their campaign on a high when they face Namibia on October 20 in Geelong.