Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Dinesh Karthik on Monday (July 27) revealed that he has had a conversation with Andre Russell and resolved all issues with the Caribbean all-rounder after his recent remarks about the IPL franchise sparked a controversy.
Russell had vented out his displeasure over the team's decision making in their 2019 IPL campaign and cited an unhealthy team atmosphere for their poor showing.
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Notably, KKR failed to qualify for the play-offs last season, finishing the league stage at the fifth position.
"To be fair, he's one of those guys who wears his heart on his sleeve. i am sure he meant whatever he said. But again, West Indies players are in your face kind of people. But whatever they say, they say it honestly and it's up to how you take it. If you want to take it offensively, then the mistake is on your part. If you want to take it constructively which is how I looked it. We had a conversation over it man to man.
"He wasn't happy with me, he wasn't happy that the team wasn't winning, that is the bottom line. Whatever he said, I completely respected it.
"He was a little apologetic as well. At the end of the day, I have a great relationship with him. That If I didn't have a great relationship with him, it could have spiralled into something nasty," Karthik said on The RK Show on YouTube.
The Knight Riders captain further clarified that there is no bad blood between him and the West Indies swashbuckler.
"Because I have an honest relationship with him where I can go straight up to him and be like 'Russ you know what, I don't think what you have said is right, because the way it has come out, it's not great.'. He also said 'you know skip, this is how I felt about it not how it's come out'. There itself half the battle is over.
"But then he had an issue. He said 'we can do this better. I don't think you are doing this way'. And then I had to explain 'being a leader, I can't completely please you but we can change things around but not exactly like you want'.
"Having different opinions and dealing with it is one of the most important things. I think you need to be able to stand up and have a conversation. Sometimes a hard conversation as well," Karthik explained.
