Excess hype often leads to broken hearts and hence it is always necessary to strike a balance, legendary Kapil Dev said on Tuesday in context of India’s six-wicket defeat at the hands of Australia in the World Cup final earlier this month. The 1983 World Cup winning skipper 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 good on the day, we need to respect that. We are too emotional,” Kapil said on the sidelines of the inaugural tee off ceremony of Kapil Dev Grant Thornton Invitational golf tournament in Gurugram.
India won 10 games, most of which were lopsided as contests, before Australia turned the tables on them at the Narendra Modi Stadium on November 19.
For past 10 years, India have lost seven knock-out games out of eight ICC tournaments that they took part between 2014 to 2023. Kapil doesn’t know if the pressure of occasion gets to them.
“I think today’s players can answer how much pressure they feel. We can only feel,” he said.
However there are shortcomings which needs to be taken care of, Kapil stated, without specifying what they were.
“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,” the 63-year-old said.
He urged fans to celebrate what India achieved rather than what they missed out.
“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 performance of other teams as well like, South Africa, England who were the defending champions, they finished last (seventh).” Kapil also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s gesture to visit the Indian dressing room and console the players after the final loss in Ahmedabad on November 19.
“If the Prime Minister doesn’t encourage, who will? He is the No.1 man in the country and if he supports, it feels good,” he said.
The former all-rounder also refrained from commenting on Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma‘s future in T20 Internationals.
“This is selectors 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.
The second edition of the Kapil Dev Grant Thornton Invitational golf tournament, sanctioned by Proffesional Golf Tour of India, will have prize purse of Rs 2 crore this year, double the amount from last year.
Title holder Varun Parikh will try to defend his title in the tournament beginning on Wednesday at the DLF Golf and Country Club here. Kapil said some former cricketers including Murali Karthik, Madan Lal, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh are expected to be present on the final day of the event on December 3.
He also said he would request Sachin Tendulkar to grace the occasion.
“Already the prize money has been doubled. It feels good that some former cricketers will be coming for the event. Why can’t cricketers play other sports? “If we can support other sport apart from cricket, why not? In India, there is not just one game,” said the man, who has been an amateur golfer since his retirement.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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