“Wanted To Give Eoin Morgan A Fair Chance”, Dinesh Karthik On KKR Captaincy Transition
Dinesh Karthik, the former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper, explained the rationale behind handing over the captaincy to Eoin Morgan midway through the previous edition of the IPL in UAE last year.
Despite KKR winning four and losing three of their matches till then in IPL 2020, Karthik decided to relinquish the leadership duties and hand over the reins to Morgan, who had rejoined the franchise that season.
Karthik had put forward his concerns on not being able to perform to his level best individually and the overall thought process behind the idea of resigning as captain following KKR’s win over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on October 7 in IPL 2020. And a week later, on October 15 – the day before KKR’s match against Mumbai Indians (MI) – the news was made public by the franchise.
In a mini-documentary released by KKR on Friday (April 16) titled, “Smooth Transition”, Karthik spoke of how he wanted to give Morgan a very fair chance to lead the team to the IPL 2020 title.
“I wanted to give Morgan a chance because it was really important, we had played seven and there were seven more games to go, so we had enough time. It would have been very unfair of me to move on if we were doing so badly that we had no chance further in the tournament,” Karthik was quoted as saying from the documentary.
“In the 2.5 years that I have led the team, I think I earned the trust of the boys. I think that’s very important as a leader. They know for a fact that they would get a lot of honesty from me. That makes things easy and Morgan is very similar to me on that front. I think the boys believed that both the people put the team ahead of themselves and that’s why the decision was taken,” he added.
The Captaincy Transition Within KKR Was “Seamless”: Eoin Morgan
For Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik’s decision to quit captaincy was “incredibly courageous” as he wasn’t going through the best of times with the bat last season but wasn’t at any stage looking to preserve his spot in the team every game. Instead, Karthik was willing to put himself at risk of being dropped from the playing XI, something Morgan respected immensely.
“If the person in question, whoever it might be in the team, isn’t feel like that they can perform for the team, the team is going to be hampered. And that’s ultimately how DK (Karthik) felt. He didn’t feel like he could be at his best and lead the team (together). So that I think made the decision a little easier for him,” said Morgan in the documentary.
Further, Morgan mentioned how it was only “logical” and “selfless” of Karthik to give away captaincy at a time when it was hampering his own performances. The experienced KKR player also said his strong bond with Karthik, and the overall environment within the set up, helped make the transition so smooth and successful.
“I was delighted to be taken on board, but given that I have captained a lot over the years, it’s been indeed a seamless transition,” he said.
“Baz (McCullum) and Abhishek Nayar had done such an incredible job of communicating to the players. Their relationship with DK and myself and even the senior players was so good that the transition was quite seamless and I actually didn’t give it a great deal of thought.”
“It wasn’t an emotional decision. He (Karthik) was actually very logical and selfless from his point of view and to show the courage to step down in the middle of the competition based on (what) you think is better for the team, is incredibly courageous,” Morgan added.
Understanding. Passion. And most of all, commitment to the cause.
Watch how these 3 elements resulted in a change of guard in the KKR ranks in our newest production, Smooth Transition
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— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 16, 2021
