Former World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev has said that skipper MS Dhoni must have his feet firmly planted on the ground if they are to end their 27-year World Cup drought.
Published: Mar 17, 2011, 01:45 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 17, 2011, 01:45 PM (IST)
Former Indian world cup-winning captain Kapil Dev has said that current national team skipper Mahendra Singh Kapil said that Dhoni must have his feet firmly planted on the ground if they are to end their 27-year World Cup drought.
By CricketCountry Staff
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Mumbai: Mar 17, 2011
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Former World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev has said that current national team skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni must have his feet firmly planted on the ground if they are to end their 27-year World Cup drought. “Dhoni isn’t a bad captain, but he shouldn’t become arrogant. That’s the only thing. I hope he’s not arrogant. He has the guts. The way he started his career, he was more ruthless,” the legend was quoted as saying by Khaleej Times.
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Team India under Dhoni’s leadership have churned out some indifferent displays in their Pool B matches so far. Shortcomings in the bowling attack, abysmal fielding and the captain’s own inexplicable choices have hurt India.
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Kapil feels that it’s unfair to judge a cricketer on the basis on his performance for one or two series. “You must also give a cricketer a long enough time to judge him. You cannot judge over the course of one or two series how well he has done,” he said.
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He sees a change in Dhoni’s captaincy because of the pressure factor. “Now though, I can see a change in his captaincy slightly, maybe because of the pressure. You don’t have to hit sixes to win the matches if you can win with a single. That’s called having a cricketing brain.
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Kapil believes that criticism of the team is mostly happening in hindsight. “Our thinking is dependent on the outcome and whether we win or not. It’s so easy for us to judge after the match.”
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The former India all-rounder hit out against ICC’s plans to reduce teams for the 2015 World Cup. “I’d like to see 100 or even 150 teams in the World Cup, like in football and tennis. If you only want to see only eight countries playing cricket, then it becomes something like American baseball’s World Series, where they compete solely against each other,” explained Kapil.
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“Do I want to see that? No. I’d like to see 100 countries participating as then you can genuinely call yourselves world champions.
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