This ex-cricketer is Chennai Super Kings’ ‘guest forever’: Meet man who left cricket for girlfriend, became crorepati

What’s more famous about cricket than its matches and tournaments in India? The epic love stories (even the tragic ones) of cricketers. One of them is of Mahalingam Venkatesan, who risked his whole career to marry his girlfriend from South Africa.

Venkatesan was a prominent figure in India’s domestic cricket circuit in the late 1970s and 80s. He risked his whole career and travelled to South Africa to meet his girlfriend.

While the adventure was a success for his love life, it proved to be a massive disaster for his professional life, as Venkatesan faced a cricket ban in South Africa. Decades later, he is not playing cricket anymore, but is a millionaire and is a Chennai Super Kings’ ‘guest forever’

Travelling to South Africa and playing cricket for another country

At the time when Venkatesan decided to leave India and travel to South Africa for his girlfriend, he had a well-established career in cricket and a job with State Bank of India.

“I met my wife Priscilla, who was a South African-Indian. She had come to India in 1983. But when she returned, I had to find a way to go and chase her to South Africa. Those days, travelling wasn’t easy,” Venkatesan told Hindustan Times in an interview.

He somehow managed to travel to South Africa. Recalling his girlfriend’s reaction after finding out he is in India, Venkatesan told HT, “’You’re lying’. I went to her workplace and declared ‘Look, I am here, all the way from India to meet you’”

While staying in South Africa, he wanted to return to cricket, hence he joined a local team in South Africa. After joining Mali was featured in two league matches for the Pastorals in Durban’s A-Division League, held in the Phoenix district. He started playing games in the name of Mahalingam Murali, according to a Hindustan Times report.

However, the news reached to India, and he had to return back to the country. He also faced ban in South Africa.

End of cricket career

Venkatesan’s cricket career in India came to an end after he suffered an injury and took retirement from professional cricket in 2000. Years later,he ventured into the restaurant business, earned well and is a crorepati who is settled in South Africa.

Chennai Super King’s guest

Sharing his connection with Chennai Super Kings, Mahalingam Venkatesan, said that N Srinivasan and Kasi Viswanathan asked him to assist CSK when IPL came to South Africa in 2009.

Recalling Srinivasan’s words, Mahalingam Venkatesan said,”Kasi, Mali will be our guest forever”. Since then, CSK sponsor his trip with his wife all over India to enjoy CSK’s matches. “Even last year, I was there. In SA20, they appointed me as the public officer for Joburg Super Kings,” HT quoted Venkatesan as saying.