“He alienated me” - Robin Uthappa reveals how a teammate ruined his relationship with Karun Nair

Former Indian keeper-batter and cricket analyst Robin Uthappa has made an interesting revelation about how a teammate from Karnataka created a rift between him and colleague Karun Nair.

Speaking exclusively in a ‘First Umpire’ podcast, Uthappa stated that he gave a generic statement during an interview, and a Karnataka player informed Nair that it was intended towards him.

While Uthappa represented Karnataka in 99 of the 142 first-class matches he played, he later went on to play for Saurashtra and Kerala after leaving his home state in 2017.

"At that point, I was trying to get into the Test team. I was frustrated because, despite performing well, I wasn't even being considered. Maybe all of those emotions came out in the conversation. I said in the interview that Test caps were being given away too easily and that some people really needed to earn them rather than just being given them freely," said Robin Uthappa.

"Someone from our team took that piece of the interview and told Karun Nair that I had said it about him. Karun Nair, who was like a younger brother, alienated me at that time because he was close to getting a Test cap. He didn't check with me and believed it. A few days later, some infighting started. When the interview came out, since it was in Bombay, and Bombay loves to dominate domestic cricket, the media there even portrayed it in a way that could be perceived as if I was talking about Karun. Karun believed it and distanced himself from me," he added.

Furthermore, Uthappa also candidly spoke about an organized attack against him within his state team. Additionally, he revealed that he was portrayed as someone who was breaking the state team.

"I told them if anyone thought I was breaking the team, they should raise their hand and I would quit immediately. Nobody raised a hand, but I knew then there was an organised attack because I had become the players' voice," he said.

"So after that incident, I tried to give everything. Genuinely and consciously I tried to give everything, but it didn't come. And performances also didn't come after that because that emotional tag of mine was broken," he concluded.

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