Shreyas Iyer Gets A Bouncer From, Wait For It, Karti Chidamabaram 

It is widely known that the Indian middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer is vulnerable to short-pitched deliveries. It is not uncommon to target him with bouncers. Little did he know though that he would get a well-disguised really short one from, wait for it, Karti Chidamabaram.

No, the sitting Sivaganga MP and the son of former Finance and Home Minister P Chidamabaram has not taken to playing cricket. In fact, what he tried was anything but cricket, figuratively speaking. 

The Chidambaram Junior, two days back, took to X, (nee Twitter) and put out a single-line post: "The @BCCI must advise players donning the Indian colours to drop their caste names. @ICC". Why he chose to tag the ICC is a question that begs an answer. But we will ignore it.

You may ask  that the tweet does not mention any particular player by name, why take it to be against Shreyas Iyer. For this, you have to understand Tamil Nadu politics and the discourse of 'Dravidology', which cannot stop navel-gazing beyond anti-Brahminism, even though the community is just around 3 per cent in the State. 

Anybody who is conversant with TN politics would know that Karti's tweet was a well-directed bouncer beamer at Shreyas, specifically the Iyer part of his name. It is a simple manoeuvre like Hemlich's that will help supply oxygen to Karti's increasing moribund political career that is totally tied to the apron strings of the ally DMK.

In any case, Karti's tweet could not have been at Rohit Sharma --- Sharma, by the way, is a caste name. If it had been the case, the right-minded Karti would have also fired off a missive to his party chief to tell their leaders to drop caste names. Anand Sharma, an esteemed former colleague of Karti’s dad, would have been a prime casualty.

Or was the tweet a snipe at the two Yadavas in the current team --- Suryakumar and Kuldeep? If so, Karti's party's prime ally for years now Lalu Prasad Yadav should be quivering in his boots. For, the force of Karti's entire moral indignation will now be turned against the poor and ageing Lalu to drop that Yadav suffix. Also, make no mistake Akhilesh, Karti is coming for you next.

Perhaps Shardul Thakur was the intended focus of Karti? Well, does he really fancy himself to be big enough to take potshots at 'The Lord'? Such insouciance even Chidambaram Sr would dare not attempt.

Karti, who is a plenipotentiary in the Indian tennis circles, will also doubtless have a go at, we presume, India's number one tennis player Sumit Nagal, as we gather that the Nagal surname is 'an indicator of gotra in the Jat community.' Poor Sumit who is struggling for funds to stay in the Tour has to now consider chopping his surname too.

Cricket and caste

Flippancy aside, seen from Tamil Nadu, only 'Iyer' is a caste name in the current Indian team. The Sharmas, Yadavs, Pandyas, Jadejas are hardly known to be caste markers in the State of Tamil Nadu where Karti practises his politics.

Also, in Tamil Nadu, the lazy narrative is that cricket as such is in the vise-like grip of Brahminical overlords. There is constant chatter against Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) based on the belief that it is N Srinivasan's fief. TNCA these days is actually headed by Ashok Sigamani, the son of DMK Minister Ponmudi. But such facts are irrelevant to the Twitter trash talk. There are Dravidologits on Twitter who are unhappy at the cricketing exploits of Indian spin wizard Ravichandran Ashwin based on the fact that he is a Brahmin by birth. Such is the state of bigotry and hatred obtaining now. So, anyone taking on the cricket administration is by extension seen to be fighting against Brahmanism.  

Anyway, there is no immediate provocation for Karti taking the caste cudgel except to secure himself some quick headlines and keep him in circulation in the State.  And that is already seems to be happening. The article is a glaring example. Mics will now be thrust into Karti's face and he will obligingly respond and double down on his earlier comment. He has already followed his first tweet with the comment to a news agency saying that his views were aired with good intention.

Karti bowling on Udhyanidhi’s pitch

Whose good is the question. Karti, a dynast politician, seems to be following the footsteps of another one in the State, Udhyanidhi Stalin. The Chief Minister's son has got the national focus thanks to his vituperative assertions on Sanatana Dharma. So Karti seems to have taken the next best available route. Cricket and Brahmanism make for a heady cocktail of hatred in TN political circles. No wonder Karti has chosen to pitch his political wicket there.

But these shots coming from Karti also seem rich. For he takes pride from the fact that he represents the Chettinadu belt in the State. Recently we also got to see a video where he espouses the culinary delights of Chettinadu. 

Chettinadu, for the initiated, is Chetti-Nadu, where Chetti is the contraction of the powerful Chettiar community whose suzerainty reigns supreme in the area, and Nadu means 'land'. Needless to say, Karti belongs to the Chettiar community.     

In the passing, allow us to point to the fact that the Oxford Book of Reference writes about a name: "It is a Shaivite sub-caste of the Chettiar mercantile caste, found mainly in Tamil Nadu." The name in question is: Chidambaram.

Karti has to now put out a tweet to himself, we guess.