India’s first World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev emphasised the need to focus more on team game rather than depending on individual brilliance if they were serious to win the semifinal and final in the ongoing T20 World Cup in West Indies.
“Why talking about only Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, or Kuldeep Yadav... everybody has a role to play. Their job is to win the tournament. To win a match, an odd person can come out, but to win a tournament everybody has to work together. If we are going to depend on Bumrah or Arshdeep, then you are going to lose it,” Kapil told PTI in an exclusive chat on Thursday.
“All the XI players have to contribute. It’s a part & parcel of the game. Lets talk about team. That gives you better perspective rather than odd player. Yes main player is there and we can go around him. But everybody has to chip in win the World Cup,” he said.
Kapil pointed out that in his 1983 World Cup winning team, he wasn’t the only one who performed and won every match to win the tournament. “Roger Binny, Mohinder Amarnath, Kirti Azad, Yashpal Sharma all came out with match winning performances. If you start depending on one player it means you are not going to win tournament more often,” he observed.
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He wished Team India good luck ahead of their semi-final match against England and hoped that the Men in Blue reach the finals and beat South Africa to clinch the trophy.
“All the Best, good luck, I hope the Indian players, the way they are playing they keep on playing like that, they should not have a bad day and they can be out of tournament what happened last time in 50 overs World Cup,” India’s cricketer of the century said.
“They are playing well, they are enjoying. Hats off to them. Good luck to them. My prayer. All the people in the country they simply think the way I think. No different. I wish them all the luck and happiness,” he added.
The talismanic all rounder said that he felt proud that people are seriously thinking that India would win the World Cup everytime they participated.
“We should be happy that we are able to think that we can win. 20 years back, you weren’t thinking. The game of cricket has gone up. Winning & losing is different. It’s important that every tournament India is going as a favourite. That’s a big thing. We never thought about that. That’s enough encouragement for a youngster to take up the sport. I am very happy to see where Indian cricket has reached wonderfully well,” he emphasised.
He further said: “The way Indian team is playing that’s more important. South Africa have never won anything. We can’t say they don’t have ability or talent. They are coming to every tournament as a finalist or semi finalist. They are good sports people. Australia come & win more often than other countries. They lost this time. It’s fine.”
“Basically, we have to see how the team is playing. You learn over a period of time. Australia playing this game differently for hundreds of years. We started (playing serious cricket) only 30-40 years back. And we can really think, that we can win everything. It’s good that they are winning and playing well.”
He was quick to asses Bumrah as a much better bowler than him. “Bumrah is 1000 times better than me. These young boys are far better than us. We had more experience. They are better. They are very good. Outstanding. They are fitter. They are much more hardworking. They are fantastic.”
He, however, played down the role of captaincy. “Everybody can do captaincy. Hardik, Virat, Rohit everyone can do captaincy. When you give ball to somebody the bowler has to do the job. Yes captain is there to help you out but it’s not like if you don’t win he is not a good captain.”
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