Kapil Dev Blames Players Prioritising IPL Over Country After Virat Kohli-Led Team India’s Early Exit From T20 World Cup

T20 World Cup: Kapil feels the Indian board should look into this and come up with a solution for the future.

Abu Dhabi: Following India’s shock exit from T20 World Cup 2021, plaudits and fans have started the blame game. Ex-India captain Kapil Dev reckons if players prioritise IPL over playing for the country, this is bound to happen. As per Kapil, it should be the other way round. Kapil feels the Indian board should look into this and come up with a solution for the future.

“When players prioritise IPL over playing for the country, we what can we say. Players should take pride in playing for their nation. I don’t know their financial conditions so can’t say much. But I feel that first in line should be the country’s team and then franchises. I’m not saying do not play cricket there (for the franchise), but the responsibility is now on the BCCI to plan its cricket better. To not repeat mistakes we committed in this tournament is the biggest learning for us,” said Kapil on ABP News.

Not just Kapil, former India stalwart Sunil Gavaskar also took the same line and said that some players could have avoided the last few IPL games in order to give their bodies ample rest ahead of such a big tournament.

Gavaskar said on Sports Tak: “Having said that, maybe at that stage, when we talk about the workload factor, to take it easy, etc. So could some of the Indian players have not played the last few matches of the IPL? Could they have avoided playing that and kept themselves fresh for India? Well, that’s something that they will be able to answer. Particularly when you know that you may not be able to qualify, should some of the players have taken a break and given themselves one week, 10 days break to freshen up and recharge their batteries?”