Kumar Kartikeya: Only playing for India isn't enough, I need to play for long

Kumar Kartikeya made his debut for Madhya Pradesh in 2018-19, but it’s only in 2022 that he has come into the national consciousness – first by turning from a net bowler to a ‘left-arm all sorts’ discovery for Mumbai Indians, and then by being one of the pillars around Madhya Pradesh’s maiden Ranji Trophy title. 

Kartikeya, who hasn’t been home to see his family for nine years and counting, speaks to Cricket.com about the long separation, the struggle, the triumphs and a lot more in a freewheeling chat. 

Edited excerpts:

Cricket.com (CDC): You’ve not met your family for 9 years?

Kumar Kartikeya (KK): 9 years and 2 months. I left home on April 1. My home is in Kanpur, but my father is in the police so he keeps getting transferred. He’s in Jhansi now. I have a younger brother, I’ve not met him also.

CDC: They also didn’t come to visit you?

KK: I had told everyone not to come. My mother used to say often to come, but I kept telling her to be patient, and I had to convince her not to come.

 I stopped video calling, because my mother used to weep! So I just called. When I called, she became emotional, so I used to make only voice calls. I did video call after winning the Ranji Trophy, and also when I got selected in the IPL. Before that, it was in 2018, when I first got selected for the Ranji Trophy.

I would send them my photos, from matches, but yes, for three years or so, we didn’t ‘see’ each other live. I had that thing inside me that till I do something, I cannot meet them. Almost like a self-inflicted punishment.

CDC: What sort of welcome are you expecting when you go home now, as an IPL player and a Ranji champion?

KK: I am not expecting anything, I just want to go home and give a hug to my mother and father. I’ve missed them a lot, and whatever little I’ve achieved, I’d like to celebrate with them.

CDC: Did you have scope to go home – given you were trying to make a career in cricket and working too for large parts of these nine years?

KK: I did have time to go home, but when I last spoke to papa, he had said that now that you’ve gone, achieve something and come back. I just said one word, ‘yes’. And because I had said ‘yes’, I wasn’t going home. I would go home only after achieving something.

CDC: Do you feel like you have achieved something now?

KK: Yes, whatever I had expected, I’ve achieved somewhat. I’ve not yet reached where I ultimately want to, but I’ve come to a certain stand, where people recognise me now.

CDC: Tell us about switching between bowling left-arm spin and left-arm wrist-spin?

KK: In the T20 game, if I bowl normal left-arm spin, there is a greater chance of being hit. But if I bowl deliveries that batsmen can’t read which way it’s turning, then it’s not so easy to hit. I’ve seen Sunil Narine, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Akila Dananjaya… I developed this after seeing them.

I learned the carrom ball from Mujeeb, the googly from Dananjaya and Rashid Khan. Watching Chahal bhai and Adam Zampa helped me pick up leg-spin, and the flipper was taught to me by Narendra Hirwani sir. He was around the MP team. I wasn’t able to bowl it, he spent only five minutes with me and gave me three-four options. One of them fit, and my googly began to spin. Earlier it didn’t spin. He’s a different level coach when it comes to bowling.

CDC: How easy is it to switch? I’ve heard you learned just from watching videos?

KK: Yes, I did it by watching videos. I studied their grips and fitted them to my action with the same grip. I can bowl with the normal grip but that will be easy for batsmen to pick. So now I bowl left-arm spin, leg-spin, googlies, carrom balls… all with the same grip.

I’ve practiced for this a lot. I mean I over-practiced. When the IPL started, I had done six months of practice with leg-spin and carrom balls. I used to do single-wicket practice for three-four hours daily. I would bowl six variations in six balls, and continue that for three-four hours.

CDC: But it’s still difficult to just pick this stuff up from videos…

KK: I have one thing, with regards to bowling my mind is sharp. I can pick some things up very quickly. I spoke to my coach, Sanjay Bharadwaj sir, also several times, because at the back of my mind I did have doubts that if I try these variations, it could spoil my left-arm spin. But my coach told me that ‘Left-arm spin is in your blood. You’ve been bowling it for ten years. If you bowl leg-spin for a couple of months, nothing will change. So if you think you can bowl it, do it.’

When he told me that, I felt more secure. Earlier when I used to practice this on the ground, several people told me not to do it, that my left-arm spin will get ruined. They said I’m established in the Ranji Trophy team, why did I want to try this?

I kept all this to one side and kept the belief in myself that I can do it. I used to speak to my coach, and he told me that there’s nothing that I cannot do. If I decide to do something I will do it. So whenever I thought it’s not happening, I would speak to him for 10-15 minutes. It would give me a kick.

From the time I’m playing cricket, whatever I am it’s because of him. He took care of my stay, my food, everything. I struggled a lot when I came to Delhi, but when I went to him, I only had to concentrate on playing cricket. He ended the rest of my struggles.

CDC: It’s almost as if you didn’t have your parents, but you found a parental figure.

KK: The first day I met him, he told me that whatever expenses I had, shoes, clothes, whatever is needed for your cricket, I will provide. I started weeping… who does this in Delhi? He said, you just think that I’m like your father. I got very emotional then. Since I had come to Delhi, everyone just wanted to take from me. ‘Give me this much and I’ll do this for you’. He spoke only about giving. I felt so nice. Even now, where he stands for me, nobody else does. He is everything for me.

CDC: People don’t do this generally. What did he see in you that he did this?

KK: I was not the only one for whom he did this. He did it for a lot of players. Some 70 players have played with him, of whom 30-35 have played the Ranji Trophy, 10-12 have played in the IPL, and a few have played for India, like Gautam Gambhir, Amit Mishra, Joginder Sharma. Among the women, Reema Malhotra. Whichever player he thought was hard-working and honest in his work, he helped them with everything he had.

When I first earned money, I wanted to give him some. I had told him that whatever I earn throughout my life, I’ll give you 30%. When I first offered it to him, he wasn’t accepting it. Then I told him, ‘Sir, there are many kids like me who come to you. This will help them.’ That is when he accepted the money.

CDC: Will he be satisfied if you play for India, or think of it again as one more step?

KK: Only getting selected for India isn’t enough. I need to play for long. Or I need to help India win a World Cup, or become the No.1 ranked spinner – that’s my aim. I used to watch world rankings on TV, and since then I had thought that, ‘One day, my name will be there’.

CDC: What makes Mumbai Indians different from the rest?

KK: The way they keep players, I don’t think anyone else can. Even after the IPL has ended, they take care about what you’re eating, how you’re staying. If you have difficulty in practice, they’ll arrange practice for you. There’s full support there.

CDC: Who’s the biggest prankster in the Mumbai Indians camp?

KK: Shane Bond! He’s got a great personality and supports you fully whether you do well or badly. But he can do a lot of masti too. Like he’ll put a speaker in someone’s bag, and then as soon as the team bus starts, he’ll play something on it, and you’ll be shocked at how this sound is coming from your bag! (laughs)

CDC: Who was the toughest to bowl to in the Mumbai Indians' nets?

KK: Surya. Phew. The most difficult. He has such shots that instead of the batsman reading the bowler, it’s the bowler who has to read the batsman! Before bowling to him, I found Gautam Gambhir the toughest to bowl to, but now it’s Surya bhai.

Everyone else had some trouble reading me, but the way he would play, you wouldn’t even know even if he hasn’t read me.

CDC: How did you get the name Kumar Kartikeya?

KK: I was named Kartikeya Singh by bade papa, my father’s elder brother. My grandmother didn’t like that and asked him if he knew who Kartikeya was. He said, ‘Yes I know, he’s a god. He’s Shiv’s son.’ She said, ‘Not that. He always stayed far from his father. If you keep such a name, he’ll have the same characteristic.’ My father said that now that the name is kept, we can’t change that. But we can add Kumar to the name. In UP, if you put Kumar after the name it signifies your caste, so that’s why Kumar was put ahead of my name.

CDC: But the Kartikeya characteristic came true!

KK: (Laughs) Yes, it did! My grandmother kept telling bade papa that it was because of the name he kept that life turned out in a way that I stayed away for so long. She always wanted to watch me on TV, and she did see me in a Ranji match but passed away last year.

CDC: When you were practicing left-arm wrist-spin, did you tell Chandu sir?

KK: Oh no I didn’t (laughs). He saw it directly in the IPL. He asked the captain, ‘What is he bowling? If he bowls like this in the Ranji Trophy how will we manage?’ So the captain told him not to worry, that it was the demand of the T20 game, and that I will bowl left-arm spin itself in the Ranji Trophy.

At the start he told me, that doing this new thing, don’t spoil what you already know. I told him, ‘Don’t take tension sir, I will manage it.’

CDC: What do you change when switching formats? Is it only the pace of bowling that changes?

KK: No, there’s a few changes in the action also. You need to close your body a bit for red-ball cricket. You need to bowl quicker with the white ball, so the body opens up a bit. For the red ball, you need to close it a bit, that’s when you get good drift and turn. I can make that switch. If I’m focussed, I can do it with my first ball back.

CDC: You’ve seen a lot of struggle in life. Has that impacted how you are on a cricket field? For instance, how would you react to a sledge?

KK: If someone tells me something, I write it down in a diary. I have three-four diaries, and one of them is for noting down who has told me what! In one of them, I note down the good things people tell me, if there’s something motivational that I want to always remember. Then there is one diary in which I write down what happens in my life, everything. Everything that has happened to me so far is written there. I don’t write everyday, but at intervals.

CDC: What will you write about this Ranji season?

KK: That we did what no one else had done for Madhya Pradesh.

CDC: Has it happened that you wrote down in your diary something about proving someone wrong, and it happened?

KK: I have an ongoing tussle with Venkatesh Iyer when I bowl to him. I’ve always felt that on a good wicket, he can easily hit me. So I always had it in my mind that I can’t let him smash me and I need to bowl such a delivery that he won’t understand. So I bowled leg-spin to him in the IPL, the first ball went for four from the outer edge off a carrom ball. Next ball I bowled a googly and he hit me for six. Then I bowled a leg-spinner, he thought it would be a googly and he got a top edge and was caught. 

Actually a couple of days before that game, we were speaking and he joked with me that, ‘Pray to God that I don’t play the match.’ So I told him, ‘It’s fine, I’ve got my planning done for you.’ He said he wouldn’t spare me, and I said we’ll see. (laughs)

I get along great with him. When I had done well in the Syed Mushtaq Ali this year, he had called me to his room and told me that I’m such a bowler that I can play at a higher level anytime. But I need to concentrate on my fitness and diet. I used to eat a lot of sweets, but he told me that if I wanted to play at a higher level, I need to quit that. 

He gave me the example of Piyush Chawla. We had a match against Gujarat and we offered him sweets but he refused them, and said he still had a lot to play. So Venkatesh Iyer told me that if after playing for so many years, Piyush Chawla can still refuse sweets, I need to quit too. That would improve my fitness.

I decided then that I wouldn’t eat sweets. I’ve quit desserts completely, even my favourite, Gajar ka halwa.

CDC: You’ve quit eating sweets. You’ll be going home after 9 years. Your mother might welcome you with Gajar ka halwa. How will you refuse?

KK: I’ll tell her from beforehand, because right now it’s more important that I play! Till I’m playing I won’t eat sweets. Yes, it will be difficult to tell her of course. But if she insists on making it, I’ll tell her to make it sugar-free!