Indian cricket star and Chennai Super Kings batsman Suresh Raina took a short break between the IPL matches and visited the famous Navagraha temples in and around Kumbakonam. “It (Kumbakonam) is a beautiful place; I loved going to all the temples,” he says, about his whirlwind visit to these places. “God has been kind to me and this is my way of saying thank you.”
Life has been good for the southpaw in recent times. After a fine outing in the World Cup in Australia, he’s back to his ‘den’, as he likes to call Chennai. And this time, there’s extra attention wherever he goes — for he’s the new ‘mappillai’, having tied the knot recently with Priyanka Chaudhary.
So, will Mrs. Raina too be cheering for the men in yellow at Chepauk and the other venues they’re playing at this season? “No,” he rues, “She’s back in Holland, where she works. She has a lot of professional commitments. We’ll spend time together when the IPL wraps up.”
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Talking about his childhood friend and now wife Priyanka, he says, she will continue to be a good friend. “She’s already a huge pillar of support,” he says. “I like the routine she follows — a fitness freak, she does meditation every day, goes to bed at 9.30 p.m. and wakes up at five. And, she’s a vegetarian, something that my family is particular about. Most importantly, she doesn’t ask me much about my cricket… I love that about her!”
Their families have known each other for a long time — in fact, Priyanka’s father was Raina’s sports master in school! “Our mothers are best friends and I’m great friends with her brother… but then, we never knew that we would get married one day.”
But now they have — and that brings our conversation back to his recent trip to Kumbakonam. Ask him about that, and he’s eager to share details. “I stayed at a beautiful resort near Kumbakonam and had a chance to explore the countryside as well. And having come so far, I couldn’t resist eating at hotels along the highway. I had three varieties of dosa and a traditional Tamil lunch — consisting of sambar, rasam and curd. I thoroughly enjoy Tamil cuisine.”
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Wherever he went, people wished his team luck. “Even the pandit ji at the temple was a fan — and I was so happy to speak to him and get his blessings. Everywhere I went, even to the interior villages, people told me how much they love the team… and also seemed to be aware of my wedding.”
It’s only during such trips that Raina puts the little Tamil he knows, which he’s picked up thanks to many years with the Chennai franchise, to good use. “I’ve improved my language skills a lot,” he grins. “In fact, on Tuesday (April 14), I even tweeted a happy New Year message in Tamil, with the help of some friends here.”
Having won the first couple of games in the tournament, Raina is looking forward to the rest of the IPL. “We have a great team and under the leadership of M.S. Dhoni, we will do well,” he says confidently. “The bowling has also improved and will help us win games as the tournament progresses.”
The Chennai Super Kings is one franchise that ensures constant connection with fans — the ‘super local challenges’ that the cricketers undertook recently was one of them. While one challenge had the players reeling off popular Tamil film dialogues, another had them shaking a leg — to both Bharatanatyam and kuthu. “These videos are a lot of fun for us,” he laughs. “For us, fans mean the world — it’s they who have supported us through all the seasons. This is our way of showing them the lighter side of cricketers.”
The city and the ground here conjure up special memories for Raina — he remembers how he hit five sixes in an over in an Indian A game here long ago. “I’ve done well on the cricket field here,” he says, “But I’ve also learnt a big lesson in Chennai, having observed people and the culture here closely. Being a good cricketer is not the only important thing; being a good person is. That’s what people here have taught me over the years.”