On Sunday, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik opened up on his strained professional relationship with spinner Kuldeep Yadav during the days leading up to their clash with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
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On Ravichandran Ashwin’s YouTube channel Karthik Said
“If you had to actually ask me one of my regrets in my cricketing career in respect to IPL, it was the fact that I did not want to get retained in 2013. If I had to rewind that whole thing and go back, and that is when I think sometimes, as a young player, you need someone as a life coach, if I had had Abishek Nayar at that stage, I know he would have said play for the Mumbai Indians,”
“I do not have too many regrets in life. I am not that kind of a person, but if I have two regrets in my cricketing career in terms of IPL, one would be the fact that I chose not to get retained because I thought MI was a team that could have really helped me grow and become an even better player.”
“And two would be the fact that, obviously, I could not represent CSK so far. But that I understand, though it is a regret because I could not play. I mean, coming from Chennai, I played all my cricket there, and I would have loved to be part of the yellow jersey, but I always respect them because they genuinely try every year to try and get me in the auction,” he concluded.
The wicketkeeper-batsman said that he had kept the option of remaining with Mumbai Indians, but he decided not to stay despite the current team, star batsmen and the leadership of captain-coaches Rohit Sharma and Ricky Ponting. He also said that he also has good relations with the French Ambani family.
Further Karthik Said
“I had the opportunity to be retained, and I declined it because I thought if I went into the auction, you know, a typical young boy who wanted to obviously chance his time in the auction, and I went inside and I became part of the auction. I just felt if I had been part of the Mumbai Indians at that stage, I would have grown a lot more as a player. The kind of infrastructure they had, the kind of team that they built, and being part of the team that was led by Rohit Sharma. [Ricky] Ponting was a coach, and the owners were brilliant with me as well.
“I had a really good relationship with Akash [Ambani], Anant [Ambani], and, to a small extent, even Nita [Ambani] bhabhi. So I had a good relationship, and you know, I just felt that if I had been part of that team, it would have helped me grow as a cricketer and as a person, and hence, when I look back at it, a decade has passed since I just felt I missed an opportunity there in Mumbai,”
Concluded Karthik
“Leading a franchise is altogether a different job. There are many other cultures, and you will find it challenging to deal with other individuals. You can be very honest with them. As a leader, you will lose out on certain friendships,” he said.
“During my time as KKR captain, Kuldeep (Yadav) was not doing as well as he is right now. There were tough conversations with him, and I don’t think he would have appreciated me at that stage. I had to be tough with him.”
“It was a hard time for Kuldeep. I think those tough times have made him a better bowler today. My bad luck is that I had to be a part of that bad phase in his life. I hope he understands what I did. I do not want him to appreciate it and be ok with it. You have to take decisions for the team and there was nothing personal,”
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