Ahead of Indian Premier League 2018, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Dinesh Karthik has revealed that his dream was to play for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Karthik in an interview to the Hindu said that he wanted to be part of the Chennai-based franchise from the first season. Interestingly, Karthik has played for teams like Delhi Daredevils, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab and Gujarat Lions in IPL during the past ten seasons, but never got an opportunity to don the yellow jersey.

“Heart of hearts, I thought I’ll be playing for CSK from the very first year. It’s been 10 years and it has never happened. The dream is getting smaller by the day. I don’t know if I’ll ever play for CSK. I have been born and brought up in the city and would have loved to play for the Chennai team,” Karthik was quoted as saying in an interview.

However, Karthik is looking forward to lead KKR, his sixth franchise, in the upcoming edition of IPL and believes it is a big honour for him. “But today, I have got the opportunity to lead an IPL team which is a big honour and I’d like to do justice to that. I think Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Mumbai have very loyal fans. That’s the beauty of franchise cricket. Chennai has always been an educated cricketing crowd and the way CSK has performed over the years has helped develop this massive fan base,” Karthik added.

After Gautam Gambhir went to Delhi Daredevils, Dinesh Karthik was handed the captaincy of Knight Riders. The two-time champions open their campaign against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on April 8 at Eden Gardens.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 22, 2018 06:11 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).