Pre-teen blessed with immense potential

It must have come as a surprise to fifth division cricketers when a wiry, young kid was summoned to bowl for Chamrajpet Cricket Club. Though it isn’t aberrant for fledgelings to do more than deliver water in division cricket, KP Karthikeya’s case was even still an anomaly.

He was only 12-years-old when assigned this task of bowling at men twice, some even thrice, his age. Only, before that game was over, those in opposition ranks understood firsthand what only those moulding him were aware of at the time. Karthikeya is an ‘exceptional’ talent.

The commonplace usage of ‘precocious’ has perhaps diluted its essence over the years, but we’d be so strained to find people with a more acute understanding of the sport and talent than Test cricketers. Exactly why when former Indian all-rounder Vijay Bharadwaj hollered ‘he really is something else. I have never seen anyone so young so good’, Karthikeya’s potential laid bare.

That he is named skipper of the state Under-14 team for the ongoing South Zone tournament at Alur reveals the degree of his skill and acumen since it is no mean feat to hold court at the helm - irrespective of age category - in a state which conveyor-belts cricketers.

Still, what convinced the selectors remained to be understood. Ramesh, his cricket coach at Holy Saint English School, stuttered plausible reasons inadvertently. “If you know this is where Anil Kumble studied,” he says with pride, ignoring the nature of the phone call for a moment.

“Karthikeya is one of a kind. He is so focused. I have seen a lot of cricketers in this age group but few of them are this zoned in. When he was 11 he was able to bowl on a full pitch (22 yards) and his lengths were perfect and also consistent. That’s almost impossible for a leg spinner his age. And as he grew taller he was able to adjust beautifully. Also, his batting is so….”

Ramesh harangued about the middle-order batsman’s ability but the fact is that his bowling is what has him playing second division cricket for Dooravani Cricketers at the moment. Also, first-division cricket at the school level, a move orchestrated on Bharadwaj’s suggestion.

“He was at KLE School (Nagarbhavi) and even though they had no team, we were not planning on moving because all other schools were far away,” said KS Prasanna, Karthikeya’s father, who works as an architect. “Bharadwaj sir spotted him at City Gymkhana and insisted that we move him to another school.”

Prasanna and his homemaker wife BM Manjula are convinced now they made the right decision, and for his part, Karthikeya isn’t giving them a reason to question it. “Basics. I just need to do the basics right and keep my numbers up,” says Karthikeya. “I want to have that vision Shane Warne had and Virat Kohli has.”

It would seem the 14-year-old has his head screwed on the right way.