‘What happened to Bumrah?’ – Kapil Dev slams Indian Cricket Board in fiery rant over poor management of players
Kapil Dev (Source: Twitter)
Legendary Indian allrounder and World Cup winner, Kapil Dev, is known for not mincing his words during expressing opinions on cricketing issues. He recently opened up on the management of players by the Indian Cricket Board with the National Cricket Academy (NCA) at Bengaluru full of injured players. He specifically targeted the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant whose absence has been difficult to cope with for the Indian Cricket Team.
“What happened to Bumrah? He started working with so much belief, but if he’s not there (in the 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,” Kapil said.
‘IPL is a great thing but IPL can spoil you also’ – Kapil Dev
He went on to include the Indian Premier League in the discussion and pointed out the tendency of cricketers to place their commitments with franchise leagues over the national team. “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,” said the legendary all-rounder.
In the end, he concluded with his criticism of the Indian Cricket Board for their poor management of players. “If you have a small injury, you would play in IPL if it’s an important game. At this stage, the cricket board has to understand how much cricket they should play. That is the bottom line. If today, you have resources, money, but you don’t have three or five-year calendars. There’s something wrong with the cricket board there,” the world cup winner concluded.
Talking about the recent updates on injured players, Jasprit Bumrah is expected to back his international comeback in the upcoming T20I series against Ireland. Rishabh Pant has been progressing well although nothing has been clearly said about his expected return. On the other hand, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer have started batting in the nets and are expected to play a part in the upcoming Asia Cup and World Cup.
