His daughter Selvi who pitched in to play fielder cum commentator was heard muttering, “neenga bowler, naanga fielder.” The yellow shawl and white dhoti-shirt clad Karunanidhi was so involved that at an instance he could be seen ‘bamboozling’ the batsmen by bowling a slower delivery. Not to mention, the DMK president also bowled a couple of wrong-uns and googlies, which were “well left” by Arulnidhi’s son. 

The cricketing video was only the latest from Karunandihi clan who, a few months ago, had released another video of one of Karuna’s great-grandchildren caressing on his cheeks. On both instances, Selvi and her brother Tamilarasu had played cameos to keep their wheel-chair ridden father enthused. 

Like the previous video, the latest cricketing episode went viral by the crack of dawn, just about the time party cadre started gathering outside Stalin’s Chittaranjan Avenue residence and party headquarters to present their gifts, unaware that they would instead be presented a gift by their ‘retired’ leader.  

— K Karthikeyan, Chennai