"Equal Importance To Each Player": RCB Coach Dinesh Karthik Sets Record Straight - NDTV Exclusive

Former India cricketer Dinesh Karthik will be donning a new hat this year, having switched the playing field for the dugout. Karthik, after 17 seasons in the Indian Premier League (IPL) will now be the batting coach of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in IPL 2025. Karthik was also at the auction table with RCB, where the franchise made some bold purchases. In an exclusive chat with NDTV, Karthik talks about his new role ahead of IPL 2025, how the mentality of an Indian sportsperson has evolved over the years and how ready India is to host the 2036 Olympics. Dinesh Karthik spoke to Rica Roy on the sidelines of the  RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit, powered by Leaders.

Read the full interview:

Q. How do you see the evolution from being a player to a very different role now...what is it going to look like? Excited about it?

A. Being a player is very important. Being a player, it's a luxury lisfestyle. Go there, people are there to help you and serve you.

Now, on the other side of the fence, so it's more a self-service. So you try and serve everybody there. So I'm looking forward to it.

It's a completely different role to anything that I've done in my life. Though so far it's been fun, I've learned a lot, especially during the auction and the prep and the lead-up. I would say it's been interesting.

Q. As fans we have seen that it has moved from a team with big stars to a team that is now picking up relatively new performers. Do you also see that as an evolution process?

A. So this auction we did look to understand that we wanted to spread the whole auction first towards batters and bowlers equally and we picked a team according to what we thought was the best way to put out a level on the path.

And so far, the team