A fun banter broke out between Nasser Hussain, Dinesh Karthik and Michael Atherton.
Dinesh Karthik was at his bantering best as he accused Nasser Hussain for his polarising verdicts on the India wicketkeeper. Karthik, during his appearance on Sky Sports, was appreciated by Hussain for scores of 38, 28 and 20 with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the ongoing IPL 2024, before he zestfully brought up the possibility of DK pushing for a place in India’s T20 World Cup squad.
Dinesh Karthik, Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton appeared together on SKY Sports. (Getty Images)
“You have been smashing it around. You’ve got a fabulous start this IPL. That role, the finisher… I thought you were pushing yourself for a spot in the World T20 in the Caribbean after one innings,” Hussain told Karthik.
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And that is when Karthik ribbed Hussain by highlighting the contradictory statements made by the ex-England batter. Karthik used phrases such as ‘tiger dressed in a sheep’s clothing’ to describe Hussain and even recalled an instance when DK felt he was ‘stabbed in the back’ by him.
“Nass, you are a tiger in sheep’s clothing. I am not going to trust a word of what you say. Just for all the SKY Sports podcast listeners, Nass doesn’t like me as a person, as a player, as a wicketkeeper, let alone any part of me. This is the first time he’s said ‘you’ve smashed again’, because he has probably seen the scorecard once or twice,” Karthik said while laughing all the time.
“If you ask Nass to put an Indian team now and list 6 wicket-keepers, I would probably be 8th in that list. Last year at the World Cup, the only person in the world who wanted me so badly out of the team… you took an interview with me, you stabbed me in the back and then you said ‘this guy doesn’t deserve a place. Where is Rishabh Pant?’ That’s the headline we got. Don’t try to play nice and coy with me.”
The IPL 2024 is Karthik’s swansong. A true veteran of the tournament, Karthik has represented six different IPL franchises dating back to the very first edition in 2008. He began with the Delhi Capitals (then Daredevils) before moving to Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Gujarat Giants (now defunct) and RCB. With over 4500 runs in almost 250 matches, Karthik is a bonafide future IPL Hall of Famer and holds the record for effecting the second-most dismissals by a wicketkeeper (133) only behind MS Dhoni.
Why Atherton apologised to Karthik
While it was only in March that the news of Karthik announcing his retirement from IPL broke out, DK in fact, had previously informed about his decision in confidentiality to Michael Atherton. However, due to a miscommunication, Athers slipped the news out in the media, for which he apologised to Karthik.
“I owe you an apology really because back when England were in India for the Test series, we were having a chat in the commentary box privately and you said that this will be your last IPL. But I didn’t realise that; I thought that it was public news. And then in one of the podcasts with Nass [er Hussain], I just let it slip that this is DK’s last IPL. And then I got a load of messages from Indian journos that ‘you’ve let it slip. This is not common knowledge’. So first of all apologies because the journos thought you had one more IPL in there,” said the former England captain and batter.
