She hated cricket till she met the wicketkeeper-batsman. Not that she has changed her opinion — she fell head over heels with Karthik because he is a simple guy, a ‘family person’.
“It is a funny feeling now. Our common friends pull my leg for my known dislike for cricket. Frankly, I like him because he is grounded and a homely guy, I can’t help if he happens to be a cricketer,” Dipika says.
According to reports, the two became friends working under the same trainer, Basu Shankar.
They got to know each other at the gym, but there was nothing more. Slowly they got to know each other. Thereafter, things gathered pace and the turning point came in February when the affable 28-year-old did something that touched her most.
“It was February and I had just won a tournament in Canada while Dinesh was playing domestic cricket in India. I went to Leeds (England) to train for a week and I found him there, coming all the way to see me. That was when I fell for him, realising not many would do something like that. He used to watch me train at the academy and even tried his hand at squash. He played much better than I thought,” she quipped.
Understanding each other become easier when both are professional sports persons, though Dinesh and Dipika prefer talking about other things in life.
“It always helps when you understand each other’s needs as a sportsperson, but we generally don’t talk at length about our sports. Both of us are close to our families and like spending time with them. We are not really party people and like to hang around with close friends,” Dipika concludes.
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