Team India’s wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik has been one of the unluckiest cricketers of this generation. Despite possessing immense talent and being a domestic stalwart, he has largely stayed under the shadow of MS Dhoni. Karthik has had a start-stop career ever since Dhoni made his international debut in 2004.
So much so, Dinesh Karthik couldn’t bag an Indian Premier League contract from his state team – Tamil Nadu. Karthik had to represent various franchises due to the omnipresent of MS Dhoni, who is the skipper of the Chennai Super Kings since the inception of the league in 2008.
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Karthik has been one of the most successful players in the league’s history. With tons of experience by his side, it was recently when he earned the leadership duties after joining Kolkata Knight Riders. Having played for six different franchises, Dinesh Karthik in a recent chat with Cricbuzz, admitted that he wished to play for the Super Kings in the inaugural edition.
Meanwhile, during that period, Dinesh Karthik was at his peak representing the country across all the formats and the only cricketer from Tamil Nadu. Reliving the old days, the veteran wicket-keeper batsman said he was sure about Chennai Super Kings buying him in the auction; however, unfortunately it wasn’t the case.
“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,” he said.
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Instead, Chennai Super Kings went for MS Dhoni; making him the highest-paid cricketer roping his service for Rs 6 crore. Speaking further, Dinesh Karthik revealed that Dhoni was with him during that time, who was also hopeful that the former will go to CSK but that never happened. Unfortunately, Karthik has been waiting for one call from Chennai for 13 years but he has never got that call.
“And the first name they picked was Dhoni, for 1.5 million USD (INR 6 crore in 2008) and he was sitting right around the corner with me. And he didn’t even tell me that they are going to pick him. 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,” Karthik concluded.
