Less than 3 months before 50-over world cup, Kapil Dev displeased with India cricketers, board

FORMER India cricket captain Kapil Dev is not pleased with the current functioning of the country's cricket and has slammed both players and the administrators over it.

The 64-year-old former legendary all-rounder who led India to their first-ever world cup title win in 1983 beating the then mighty West Indies, has even raised questions over the national commitment of the current cricketers, suggesting they would not mind appearing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with minor injuries but prefer skipping games for the same reason when it comes to the national team.

Speaking to The Week in an interview, Dev asked about the progress of top pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who has been out of the national team for about a year with a back injury. Efforts to bring the bowler into the national side have been unsuccessful on more than one occasion and Indian cricket fans are still not sure whether he will be seen in the 50-over world cup starting at home in October.

The 29-year-old, who missed some key tournaments last year such as Asia Cup in the UAE and the T20 world cup in Australia, has been bowling of late but his participation in the upcoming big event is not certain yet.

"What happened to Bumrah? He started working with so much belief, but if he's not there (in World Cup semi-final/final)... we wasted time on him. Rishabh Pant... such a great cricketer. Had he been there, our Test cricket would've been better," Dev was quoted as saying in the interview.

Speaking about the IPL and players' injuries, the former cricketer said, "God is kind, it's not as if I never got injured. But today, they are playing 10 months in a year. Give a benefit of doubt to that, but everybody has to look after themselves. IPL is a great thing but IPL can spoil you also. Because, a little bit of injuries and you will play in IPL. A little bit of injuries, you won't play for India. You would take a break. I'm being very open about it."

He also lashed out at the Board of Control for Cricket in India accusing it of not managing the players' workload effectively.

"If you have a small injury, you would play in IPL if it's an important game. At this stage, cricket board has to understand how much cricket they should play. That is the bottomline. If today, you have resources, money, but you don't have three or five-year calendars. There's something wrong with cricket board there," he added.