Sport is about characters and charisma. Few admire the boring types, the ones who perform like machines on the field of play and exhibit few emotions beyond the boundary. If you talk of cricket and the Indian Premier League (IPL), one man who has embraced the slam-bang, whiz-thud T20 cricket and its most-hyped league is Dinesh Karthik.
Where does one begin with one of the most humorous blokes in Indian cricket who is now enjoying the last few days of his cricket stardom in IPL 2024? DK, as he is popularly known, is a thinking cricketer. If you are going to use stats to describe and capture his personality, that would be banal.
Yet, what has stood out, is how DK has stood the test of time and pressure in a format where oldies don’t survive unless they have slogged in the gym. To be sure, there are thousands of images of this star cricketer available in the public domain. Maybe, a decade ago, when he played for KKR, he did not look so strong, physically.
For a man who turns 39 on June 1, the beast mode is on view. Look at his biceps and arms and chiselled-out frame, and the hours put in at the gym catch the eye. It is almost impossible to last the rigours of the IPL for 17 years, where DK has been a regular since its inception in 2008. To have played for six different teams and performed has been outstanding, though some were teary-eyed on Saturday, as that could have been the last match for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in IPL 2024. Personally, it was supposed to be Karthik’s last fling with the IPL.
Would there not be emotions for the man who had also invited his family? Of course, yes. But then, as DK waxed eloquently in the RCB dressing room on Saturday night, when RCB tore the form book to shreds and thumped Chennai Super Kings to board the flight to Ahmedabad, history was made. Carping critics had slammed RCB as a team which could show consistency only in failure. Then again, for a side which has a massive fan base and is adorned by charismatic characters like Virat Kohli and Karthik, the turnaround in IPL 2024 has been very much like the Phoenix rising from the ashes.
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That stunning win was virtually like a sick man being taken off the ventilator and finally being given the discharge slip. RCB were alive. Celebrations apart, which are all over social media, the video of DK addressing the team is a must-view for all.
As he is talking, his arm and biceps are bulging. When addressing his teammates, there is wit, humour and even a bit of banter. Talking about the team’s revival, or turnaround, DK has delivered the most motivational speech. Yet, what is unique is that he has not made it about himself, for Sunday’s match was supposed to have drawn the curtain down on his career.
“Party hard, celebrate, don’t be glum like Andy Flower” – these words made for compelling viewing as DK described the turnaround by RCB in IPL 2024 as something which would become part of folklore.
What, then, is DK’s own story in the IPL? To have been with six different teams and then adopting Bengaluru as his “home” though he hails from Chennai. Then again, from no angle does he look like a man who will begin his 40th year on June 1. One has to bring in Dipika Pallikal, his wife who has ensured DK could push his career to the limit. In fact, the romance which began while attending fitness sessions in Chennai almost 13 years ago under Shankar Basu is what has led to DK and Dipika becoming role-model athletes.
In the case of DK, his romance, and falling in love with fitness was because of the gym and Dipika. For him to have flown to England less than a year after their first meeting around 2011 was proof that they were serious. So has been the commitment to fitness, which has kept both going strong.
The fitness standards required for an extremely physical sport like squash and cricket are different. Squash is explosive energy, quick bursts, where very sinew and every joint comes into play. In cricket, for a wicketkeeper and batter, fitness is very different. But then, both DK and Dipika, despite marriage and having kids, kept pushing each other.
When she won a mixed gold medal with Harinder Pal Singh at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year, DK was most happy. He was not there, but had seen videos of his wife winning. His emotions expressed on social media after she won were a sign of mutual respect for each other as athletes.
People talk of star couples and power couples. We, in India, have DK and Dipika, the super-fit couple who serve as role models for anyone who wants to get in shape. The way they have goaded each other and become super hits in their walks of life is part of the romance. Will tonight be DK’s last assignment in the IPL, when RCB meet Rajasthan Royals? Will he deliver one more speech? After all, to borrow from his own words, for a commentator to turn a cricketer again and fire in the IPL has been a great story.
It does not end there, really. Do not forget, apart from his first stint with SKY Sports, he was also batting consultant when England toured India earlier this year for the Test series. The last paragraph in the final chapter of Karthik’s IPL career needs tweaking. In it, fitness has played an important role, as has his pushing the envelope to stay relevant every day, whether with a bat or a microphone.
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