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Former Indian and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Dinesh Karthik hailed the Indian Premier League (IPL) for unleashing a mindset change in Indian cricket and for helping in the growth of infrastructure in the sport, and opened up on how spending time with Glenn McGrath, the Australian pace legend during his early days helped him understand the Australian mindset towards the game.
In a conversation with Mo Bobat, Director of Cricket, RCB, and former England cricketer Isa Guha, during the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit Powered by Leaders at the Padukone Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence on Friday, Dinesh said that the IPL has inculcated a "winning mentality" in all Indian players. "The IPL has brought out a winning mentality in all our players. With the influx of money and the financial benefits that a lot of the teams receive, and in turn the stakeholders, a lot of it has been put back in infrastructure. So, when infrastructure grows, eventually the quality of sport develops as well," the current RCB batting coach and mentor said as quoted by an RCB press release. The former India wicket-keeper further added, "We can say that since the IPL has become a part of Indian cricket's fabric, they can now field two to three teams in international cricket at the same time, and almost compete with each one of them. Right now, India is in a very privileged place where they have such a good assortment of cricketers across skill sets." Reflecting on his experience of sharing a dressing room with Glenn McGrath in the early years of the IPL as a part of Delhi Capitals (DC), and how it shaped his approach to the game, "For me the whole ideology of how Australia played at that time was a massive shock. They felt like a pack of wolves out to win every game. But with IPL, in my first year, I got to spend time with Glenn McGrath in close quarters and practice with him, I got to know him better and became comfortable, which helped the confidence and mindset of competing with the best," he said. The second edition of the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit Powered by Leaders on March 14-15 in Bengaluru is currently underway at the Padukone Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence. (ANI)
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