Kerala Cricket Association settles for Arun Karthik

KOCHI: The Kerala Cricket Association's (KCA) search for a professional guest player to play for Kerala in the upcoming domestic season seems to have come to an end. After engaging in talks with at least half-a-dozen players over the last two months, KCA has finally settled on former Tamil Nadu batsman Arun Karthik as their second guest player.
The decision was taken after KCA secretary Jayesh George held discussions with Dav Whatmore (Kerala coach), Tinu Yohannan (Director, Centre of Excellence and bowling coach) and S Ramesh (Director, Games Development) in Chennai on Friday.
TOI was the first to report on July 1 that KCA were close to sealing a deal with Karthik.
Karthik will be one of the two guest players for Kerala this season as Madhya Pradesh all-rounder Jalaj Saxena will continue his services here after having been roped in by the KCA last year.
"Arun Karthik has agreed to play for us next season. We have received positive feedbacks from him. He was keen to play for us and we feel his presence will be beneficial to Kerala cricket," said Jayesh George.
The deal is likely to be formalised next week as Karthik will have to get an NOC from Assam Cricket Association, for whom he played last year and he is expected to receive it a day or two.
Asked whether they have closed the doors on Robin Uthappa, who was KCA's first choice guest player for next season, Jayesh said: "We will write to him today (Friday) informing our decision to rope in Karthik. We were on the lookout for an opener and we have got one in Karthik. So I guess that chapter is closed."
Apart from Uthappa and Karthik, the KCA had also reportedly engaged in talks with Paras Dogra, Tanmay Srivastava, Irfan Pathan and Wasim Jaffer regarding a move to Kerala.
The 31-year-old who got married recently has been a regular in Indian domestic cricket for eight years and announced his arrival by hitting a century on debut for Tamil Nadu against Karnataka in the 2008-09 season. Having played for Tamil Nadu for six seasons, Karthik shifted his allegiance to Assam in 2014 and batted in the middle-order for them last year. His shift to Kerala for the upcoming season will see him return to bat at the top of the order.
"I played three seasons for Assam and I felt it was time to move on. KCA's offer came at the right time and they have offered the role of an opener. I love playing the new ball and the chance of returning to the top-order has got me excited. I am quite familiar with most of the guys in the Kerala team as most of them play a lot of club cricket here in Chennai. I think the team has the potential to go all the way in Ranji Trophy and I am ready to give my best," Karthik told TOI from Chennai.
Karthik was also offered a contract by Chennai Super Kings in Indian Premier League before he moved to Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2011. He grabbed eyeballs that year in the Champions League T20 tournament when he hit a last-ball six against South Australia to guide Royal Challengers to the finals of the competition.