Want to work with Brendon McCullum, who changed the face of cricket in 2015 World Cup: Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik, the discarded Indian cricketer, is praying for the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) to take place. It’s because, he wishes to work alongside Brendon McCullum in the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The latter was appointed as the coach last year after Jacques Kallis resigned from his position on July 2019. McCullum isn’t in unknown territory as he was a part of the Knights before as a player.

In fact, his century for KKR back in 2008 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (KKR) set the tone for the T20 tournament. Karthik, who has led the Knights for two seasons thus far, reckons that McCullum changed the face of cricket after guiding New Zealand to the final in the 2015 World Cup.

He is extremely inspiring, says Dinesh Karthik

“In every generation there is a cricketer who changes the face of cricket. I think Brendon McCullum did that in the last WC. He showed the world how to play the game really fair, really hard in a watchable and enjoyable manner. He is extremely inspiring,” Karthik was quoted as saying in in the latest episode of ESPNcricinfo One on One #Workfromhome.

Karthik had a chance of meeting McCullum during the 2019 Caribbean Premier League (CPL). Interestingly, Baz is also the head coach of the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) and Karthik was seen in the team dressing room during one of the matches. It got Karthik in a bit of a tangle though from the BCCI. He is also wanting to meet Eoin Morgan, the 2019 World Cup-winning England captain.

“One of the reasons why I want this IPL to happen is to be able to work with Brendon and Eoin Morgan. These are the two people I genuinely want to rub shoulders with. I can learn so much from these two people,” he stated.

Karthik was named the KKR skipper in 2018 and he took the team to the second Qualifier where they lost to the Sunrisers Hyderabad. In the previous season, the Knights failed to make the playoffs after losing quite a few games in the middle phase of the tournament. Despite not tasting enough success, Karthik is ‘honoured’ to lead the Men in Gold and Purple.

“KKR is, without doubt, the best franchise I have played for and I feel honoured to lead this team. In my first year at KKR, we did very well, we almost made it to the final but lost in semis. It was a great season, we had a lot of young guys and we did our best to push forward the result. I need to do something special and help them cross the line,” Karthik added.