‘Don’t keep so much hopes..’: Kapil Dev on India’s World Cup campaign

Kapil said that the Indian fans should refrain from creating too much pressure and treat cricket just as another sport.

“Don’t keep so much hope that people end up with broken hearts. We need to keep a balance. Other teams also came to India to compete in the World Cup. We shouldn’t create so much hype. We need to look at sports as sports only. Whoever plays well on the day, we need to respect that. We are too emotional,” PTI quoted Kapil as saying on the sidelines of the inaugural tee-off ceremony of the Kapil Dev Grant Thornton Invitational golf tournament.

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Before Australia turned the tables on them at the Narendra Modi Stadium on November 19, India won 10 games, most of which were lopsided as contests.

India has lost seven knock-out games out of eight ICC tournaments for the past 10 years that they took part in between 2014 to 2023. Kapil doesn’t know if the pressure of the occasion gets to them.

“I think today’s players can answer how much pressure they feel. We can only feel,” he said.

Kapil said there are shortcomings which need to be taken care of. “If they (India) win it feels really good. There are shortcomings which we need to address. It is not that you won’t have shortcomings after a win. What’s most important is to rectify them,” he said.

He urged fans to celebrate what India achieved rather than what they missed out on.

“They (India) won 10 matches in a row. Is it not enough? We should look at other teams as well. We shouldn’t compare anyone. What is important is to see whether they played good cricket or not. We played very good cricket. Final day was not ours so be it,” the 1983- World Cup-winning captain added.

Kapil cited the examples of South Africa and defending champions England to prove his point.

“We should look at the performance of other teams as well like, South Africa, and England who were the defending champions, they finished last (seventh).”

On Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma:

The former all-rounder also refrained from commenting on Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s future in T20 Internationals.

“This is the selector’s job and we should leave it to them. It is not good to comment on everything. They are responsible and what they feel good, they should do,” he said.

With agency inputs. 

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Updated: 28 Nov 2023, 06:42 PM IST