Bengaluru, Feb 17: It took some time coming, but by far, the biggest surprise package of this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) player auctions in Bengaluru turned out to be a local boy. Konganda Charamanna (or KC) Cariappa, a very highly-rated mystery spinner in the Karnataka cricket circuit, was purchased by defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a whopping Rs.2.4 crore.
An unknown in India’s domestic circles, Cariappa shot to fame in the 2014 edition of the Karnataka Premier League (KPL), an inter-state Twenty20 tournament organized by the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA). Cariappa’s impressive displays in the KPL, where he picked up 11 wickets in six matches representing the Bijapur Bulls, earned him a call-up to the preliminary squad of the Karnataka Ranji Trophy. Besides, he has represented Karnataka Under-19s in limited over competitions. Known to be a limited-overs specialist, Cariappa represents Socials Cricket Club in Bengaluru’s premier club cricket competition.
Sudhindra Shinde, Cariappa’s personal coach reckons that while the limited overs formats are his strength, his performances in long-format cricket have also been improving. Shinde, a former Karnataka Ranji cricketer himself, says, “His main skill is to spin the ball both ways. Not just skill, he’s got great control for a spinner and importantly, his reading of the game is very impressive.” During one of the KPL matches against Mysore, Cariappa, says Shinde, was all over Manish Pandey, before scalping him. Shinde adds, “He’s a mature, thinking cricketer, who reads various situations very well.” While Cariappa’s purchase by KKR might have surprised those who follow the sport, people around him, including Shinde say that they’d been expecting it. “We had planned his career path, and we knew that the IPL wasn’t far away. So, this is not as much of a surprise to us,” he says, before adding, “We were aware of their (IPL franchises) interest.” KKR and other franchises were monitoring Cariappa’s feats at the local level. It was during KPL that the Kolkata-based franchise made their initial move, identifying Cariappa’s exploits in the Twenty20 tournament through a local scout named Srikanth to monitor his performances.
The only surprise, Shinde says, was the money he went for—a whopping Rs.2.4 crore. In a phone interview, Cariappa clarified that he was not a video analyst, as some news reports said. “I am just a player.” In fact, Srikanth, the KKR scout who followed him through the KPL and recommended him to the franchise, happened to be the video analyst of his team, the Bijapur Bulls.? Cariappa said he wasn’t expecting the Rs.2.4 crore KKR paid for him. “To be honest, I was expecting the base price (of Rs.10 lakh).”? On his bowling style, he said, “I began by playing tennis ball cricket. Leather ball cricket happened by chance, and once I started bowling with the leather ball, the people around me encouraged me to bowl.” He added, “My stock delivery is the leg spinner and I bowl the carrom ball and I am working harder on my off-spin,” he added. Cariappa further said that his action was legal (as per BCCI and ICC regulations) and in fact, (as reported earlier in this story) does not resemble Sri Lankan Ajantha Mendis or West Indies spinner Sunil Narine. “My action has been the same since I started playing tennis ball cricket,” he said. His bowling arsenal includes a sharp carrom ball, a back of the hand googly and according to his team-mates, has recently developed an off-spinner.
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