Dinesh Karthik’s father and family are in Sydney, hoping to see a fairytale finish to the fairy tale story of our times.
At an apartment in Sydney, Krishna Kumar is sitting on a sofa, clad in RCB shorts, awaiting the arrival of his sons Dinesh and Vinesh. He wasn’t there at the humdinger at the MCG, and has flown in to catch his son Karthik play India’s next game against Netherlands on Thursday. A practical man, Krishna believes this T20 WC could be the swan song for his son.
“We don’t know whether the world cup will be his last appearance for India or there is more. For me, seeing him play at the age of 37, itself is a miracle. If he plays in the next year’s ODI World Cup, it will be a bonus for us. At the same time I’m a practical man, somewhere we all know what will happen after this World Cup … so we all decided to fly and see him play in Aus,” Krishna, who plans to be in Aus for a few days, tells- India Express..
There hasn’t been a greater fairytale story in Indian cricket than his son’s comeback in recent times. But there was a touch of fairy tale even at the start of the journey – when Karthik was 12, the father would make a curious decision. Krishna was a teacher in Kuwait and wanted his son to play cricket but knew that Karthik had to be in India. The husband and wife took the tough call to send their 12 year old son to Chennai to his sister-in-law’s home.
The fairy tale peeps out from the father’s next decision in how he decided which school to get Karthik admitted in.
“I didn’t know which school I should put him in. So, what I did was I began to give throw downs to Dinesh in Chennai’s few grounds in anticipation that if some coach sees him, he will help us get into a good school,” Krishna recalls.
