Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik, who plays for Tamil Nadu in domestic cricket, is still waiting to get the call from the home franchise, Chennai Super Kings. In the recent interview, Dinesh reminisced the day of auction for the inaugural edition when Dhoni was picked ahead of him by his home franchise.
Indian Premier League (IPL) is a star-studded league. Franchises try to bag the service of the player who is famous in their home state. For instance, Mumbai Indians bagged Sachin Tendulkar, and Kolkata Knight Riders picked Sourav Ganguly in the inauguration edition, and their respective state-franchise bagged many more famous names. But the wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh, who is an outstanding Tamil Nadu player and also captains the side, is still waiting to be bought by CSK.
Dinesh Karthik was surprised by MS Dhoni’s selection:
Speaking to Crizbuzz, the veteran admitted that he was waiting for CSK to call his name in the auction of inauguration edition, but he was surprised to see that Dhoni was picked for his home team.
“In 2008, I was in Australia and the auction was happening. In the lead up to that, I was convinced that the biggest name from Tamil Nadu who is also playing for the country…I’m sure they (Chennai Super Kings) are going to pick me. The question is whether they are going to make me the captain or not…that was going on in my head. And the first name they picked as Dhoni, for 1.5 million and he was sitting right around the corner with me. And he didn’t even tell me that they are going to pick him,” he said.
“Probably he didn’t know. But that was the biggest dagger to my heart. So I thought that they would pick me later. It’s been 13 years and I am still waiting for that elusive call from CSK,” he asserted.
The wicketkeeper-batsman started his journey in IPL with Delhi Daredevils (now known as Delhi Capitals) playing for them from 2008 to 2010. He then shifted his base to Mohali and represented Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) for only one season. From 2012 to 2013, he played for Mumbai Indians (MI) after which, he again featured in the Delhi-based franchise in 2014.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) bought him in 2015. He then played for Gujrat Lions from 2016 to 2017. In 2018, he was bought by KKR and had been retained for IPL 2020. He also captains KKR. Thus, the 34-year-old has a lot of experience playing for different franchises and players.