The ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to either cancellation or postponement of all sporting events across the world with the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 biggest cricketing event to be postponed indefinitely due to the crisis at the moment.
The IPL 2020 was scheduled to be played between 29 March to 24 May, but it was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 crisis wreaking havoc in India like other countries, which led to a lot of speculations that the premier T20 event being played behind closed doors besides the shortened tournament once the situations get batter.
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Well, former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman and Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik has also come out with his opinion regarding the IPL 13 behind the closed doors this year.
During an Instagram chat with former England cricketer-turned-commentator Isa Guha on Thursday (April 23), the KKR captain has made it clear that he has no problem playing without crowds.
Explaining his comments, Karthik said an empty stadium will not hurt Indian players as they “have grown up” turning out in domestic matches with few watching them, therefore, it would not be too "weird” to play the IPL 2020 without fans on the stadiums.
Karthik said during the Instagram chat: “For a lot of us, we have grown up playing domestic cricket without crowds. So, it should not be too new to us. It would feel weird for sure. We have never played IPL without fans but we have grown up playing domestic cricket where nobody is watching us.”
The 34-year-old has also spoken about cricket commentators’ tendency to come up with controversial remarks about players some times. The out-of-favor India stumper said: “A lot of players get hurt by what commentators say. See they are talking about you as a player and not a person. One more thing, if they don’t talk about you then you are not relevant is what I feel.”
Karthik signed off by saying, “I remember watching an interview by Ian Chappell. When a player walked up to him and asked why you said this about me, he said ‘your job is to play…my job is to talk. Let's stick to our jobs’. Then there were not so much social media but now there is.”
(With PTI Inputs)
