The 31-year-old Karthik, who led India in the 2021 Asian men’s volleyball championship in Japan and now captain of Kochi Blue Spikers in the Prime Volleyball League (PVL), said his family depended on his career after the demise of his father who worked in a small construction company.
Speaking ahead of the PVL opener this season against Hyderabad Black Hawks, Karthik lauded the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for shaping his volleyball career. “When I started playing volleyball, I wasn't good at it. Some of the players at SAI used to talk behind my back that I wasn't good enough. Then I made up my mind that I should achieve something. I didn't let their comments deter me. I took them in a positive way,”he explained.
Karthik, who works as an assistant in the Postal Department in Bengaluru played his first junior Nationals for Karnataka in 2009 and won gold that year.
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“I also played as a guest player for BSNL. In 2011, I made my first appearance in the Senior Nationals. I played for India for the first time at the South Asian Games 2016 when we won the gold,” he recalled.
Some of the career-highs for Karthik were the gold in the 2015 Fed Cup for Karnataka which was his first at the senior level, and also being a member of the Senior national winning team in 2019.
Kochi head coach Dr M.H. Kumara said the preparations were going on well and that the foreign players joined the squad on January 31.
"Every team has a chance to win the tournament as all sides have good players. We are certainly aiming to win the trophy and I think we have a good chance. We have a good crop of experienced players on our side and we also have plenty of youngsters in our team,” he said.
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