Aggression was his forte. Of late though, Kapil Dev has mellowed down a lot. He even manages to avoid the tricky ones. But on some issues, his stand still remains clear.
Kapil Dev says BCCI has done well to give chances to small town youth, an objective of the ICL alsoMUMBAI: Aggression was his forte. Of late though, Kapil Dev has mellowed down a lot. He even manages to avoid the tricky ones. But on some issues, his stand still remains clear.
Like the oft-repeated foreign coach issue. “I have said it many times, I say it now, I will keep saying it again and again: India doesn’t need a foreign coach. We don’t need a Gary Kirsten, we never had a need for a Greg Chappell or a John Wright. You need not take my word for it, the Indian team has proved it,” he boomed on Wednesday, on the sidelines of a function to announce the title sponsor of the Indian Cricket League, of which he is the chairman.
Kapil went on to make a strong case for the support. “After Chappell left, India won the Twenty20 World Cup; they beat Pakistan; and now their performance in Australia. Who guided them? And mind you, this was despite the absence of some key senior players.
It’s indeed sad that we are giving credit to Dav Whatmore for the Under-19 team’s triumph. I even read somewhere that it was because of Kirsten’s tips that India did so well in Australia. Has anyone thought about Venkatesh Prasad, Robin Singh and Lalchand Rajput? It’s because of their hard work that we are celebrating today. But nobody has given credit to their efforts. Why?”
He gave bowlers the credit for the superlative performance. “I really felt proud to see an Indian bowler (Ishant Sharma) clocking speeds in excess of 150. Only Javagal Srinath used to bowl at such pace in his early days, but that was around the 140 mark.
Ishant is the find of the Australian tour. He should not be over-used, or he will break down. I think the credit should go to the bowling coach (Prasad) for the bowlers’ fine showing,” Kapil said.
How does he rate Dhoni’s captaincy? “He has all the attributes of an ideal leader. He’s calm, mature and stays cool under pressure. Captaincy doesn’t seem to affect his batting or keeping. He trusts his players and they trust him. That was the key, it was a total team effort,” he said.
Despite him being at tangent with the BCCI, Kapil acknowledged that the best thing about this team was the emergence of youth from small towns and credited the board for it.
“It’s good for the game that talent from the small towns are coming up and making their presence felt. Praveen Kumar, Irfan… most of the members of the u-19 side are from obscure towns. That’s something for which I should credit the BCCI. And that’s the aim of the ICL too, we want to unearth talent from the small towns and give them exposure to compete at the international level,” he observed.
But how can the ICL help the players, when the Board is hell bent on punishing anyone associated with the league? “See, our goals are long-term.
This is like starting a school. The boys then have to go to college, and compete with the best. We have only made a beginning. I am 200 percent confident that everything will settle down.
We are not here to fight with the BCCI, we are here to work with them, aid them in their endeavours. Just wait and watch, everything will be fine,” was his parting shot. We will wait.
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