We Had A Conversation Over It Man To Man: Dinesh Karthik On His Tussle With Andre Russell In IPL 2019

Dinesh Karthik, Kolkata Knight Riders captain, revealed that he had a ‘man-to-man’ conversation with West Indian swashbuckling all-rounder Andre Russell to solve their issues after Russell comments in the media stirred up a controversy during the 2019 IPL.

KKR had another middling campaign last season where they finished fifth in the points table. Following a series of defeats, Andre Russell had criticized team management’s bad decisions and the ‘unhealthy environment’ in the dressing room as the reason behind another underwhelming season.

“To be fair, he’s one of those guys who wears his heart on his sleeve. I am sure he meant whatever he said. But again, West Indies players are in your face kind of people. But whatever they say, they say it honestly and it’s up to how you take it. If you want to take it offensively, then the mistake is on your part. If you want to take it constructively which is how I looked it. We had a conversation over it man to man, ” Dinesh Karthik said on ‘The RK Show’ on Youtube.

“He wasn’t not happy with me, he wasn’t happy that the team wasn’t winning, that is the bottomline. Whatever he said, I completely respected it,” he added.

“He was a little apologetic as well. At the end of the day, I have a great relationship with him. That If I didn’t have a great relationship with him, it could have spiralled into something nasty,” Karthik said.

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‘I have an honest relationship with him’- Dinesh Karthik on Andre Russell

“Because I have an honest relationship with him where I can go straight up to him and be like ‘Russ you know what, I don’t think what you have said is right, because the way it has come out, it’s not great.’. He also said ‘you know skip, this is how I felt about it not how it’s come out’. There itself half the battle is over,” Karthik said.

“But then he had an issue. He said ‘we can do this better. I don’t think you are doing this way’. And then I had to explain ‘being a leader, I can’t completely please you but we can change things around but not exactly like you want’,” he recalled.

“Having different opinions and dealing with it is one of the most important things. I think you need to be able to stand up and have a conversation. Sometimes a hard conversation as well,” Dinesh Karthik added.

The duo will once again be the key to their sides’ fortunes when the 2020 edition of the IPL gets underway in the UAE from September 19.

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