Dinesh Karthik drew curtains on his illustrious Indian Premier League (IPL) career as he retired from cricket. The 38-year-old, who joined Royal Challengers Bengaluru from Kolkata Knight Riders in 2022 for his second stint after 2015, played his last IPL match when Rajasthan Royals eliminated RCB in the playoffs.
When asked about what was going in his head on the night of his last game, Dinesh Karthik said: “I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. There’s lots happening in the house, there’s a couple of weddings and all so I’ve been pretty busy with that. Other than that, it’s okay.”
“Even though you planned for it a lot, still there are a few feelings that come. It’s a tad bit emotional, a tad bit relief. I was just thinking I have to catch a flight, probably this is [the last time]. In the lead up to that, because I was kind of preparing myself like ‘oh maybe this is the last practice session’, ‘oh this is the last time I am going to practice wicket-keeping’, ‘oh this is the last time I am playing at this ground.’ So these sort of moments just kept playing in my mind a lot. In a way I was mentally prepared for whenever it had to happen. But I was so much more prepared for 18th May [last league game vs CSK]. Once that part of the tournament was crossed, I was extremely elated and very, very happy and grateful. The 22nd [Eliminator vs RR] came around pretty fast, but overall it was a mixed feeling of relief, emotion and the fact that it has all come to an end,” DK told Cricbuzz in an interview.
Dinesh Karthik, a veteran campaigner in the IPL, has been involved in all the editions of the league since the inaugural 2008 season and has represented six franchises, including leading KKR to the playoffs in 2018. He ended with 4,842 runs in 257 matches with 22 fifties.
When asked about it he considered continuing, given the IPL’s Impact Sub rule and his contemporary like MS Dhoni playing on into his 40s, DK said physical fitness was not a concern for him.
“I think I am physically very much prepared to play for another three years. Especially with the Impact Player rule, it becomes that much easier. So in terms of playing the sport, easily I think I could’ve pushed for another cycle. I don’t have too many issues in my life. Touch wood, I have never missed a game because of an injury through my three decades. I’ve been blessed that way. I was never worried about my body or my fitness. It was all about the mental side of things, whether I’ll be able to push as much in the lead-up to the tournament, whether if I don’t play as many matches, will I be okay with it. I am a big believer of whatever I look to do, I try to give it 100% commitment and do whatever I can to be the best in that. And I thought from hereon for me to play X amount of matches is going to be hard,” he said.
“Mentally pushing myself for so long in terms of doing everything in the lead-up, even if I falter a little bit I wouldn’t be… even though from the outside people wouldn’t know, but internally I would find it very hard and I would be living with guilt. I don’t want that. At the end of the day, it is a professional sport and people are paying you and they expect a certain performance and that comes with responsibilities. I want to live up to those responsibilities internally to all the benchmarks that I have set. When I thought about that, I said, ‘No I don’t think I’ll be doing that.’ Add to the fact that I have a little bit of a young family, so spending time with them [is important].”
“Those are all small factors, and I think the big one was whether I can do it for the next three years, because even if I go into this cycle and I play one year, I think it is a tad bit unfair on the team because they’ve picked me at a certain price point. If I don’t play the cycle or I walk into the tournament knowing that I won’t finish the cycle, then it is a little bit unfair on the team because they could have used that resource on a player they know would be there for all three seasons. Taking all that into account, I thought this is the time [to retire]. And most importantly, the fact that no matter what I do, I cannot play for India again was very evident. So it was the last nail in the coffin,” Dinesh Kathik said.
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