Dinesh Karthik on dispute with KKR all-rounder

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik clarified on Monday that he has had a conversation with all-rounder Andre Russell and resolved all issues with the West Indies superstar after his recent comments about the IPL team stirred up a controversy.

Russell had expressed his displeasure about the team's "bad decisions" in their 2019 IPL campaign and blamed an unhealthy team atmosphere for their poor results. The two-time champions failed to qualify for the playoffs last season, finishing fifth in the league stage.

But Karthik said the differences in opinion with Russell have been resolved and there is no bad blood between the two stalwarts.

"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 not happy with me, he wasn't happy that the team wasn't winning, that is the bottomline. 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.

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 added.