Karkala: Former Indian cricketer and native of Karkala Ravi Shastri visited Kervalu Shri Vishnumurthy temple here on Wednesday and offered pooja.

Speaking to media persons, Shastri said that he has been visiting the temple from the past 9 years and that it gave him immense pleasure to be here. “It will give me more power to present the commentary for the second test to be held at Chinnaswamy stadium”, he quipped.

“To be happy and have a peaceful life, God’s blessings are essential. I visit temples here in Dakshina Kannada once a year. Next I will be visiting Kollur temple, stay in Manipal and on Thursday, I will visit Subramanya temple and leave for Bengaluru,” he added.

The temple administrators and locals welcomed him. Special lunch was also prepared at the temple premises.

Journalist Manohar Prasad, Yuvaraj Naik, Bhoja Shetty, Sudhakar Hegde, Dr Santhosh Kumar Shastri and others were present.