Former India captain Kapil Dev on Tuesday strongly criticised the much-hyped return of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to domestic cricket. The two veteran batters played their first Ranji Trophy game in 12 and nine years, respectively, last month after BCCI issued a fresh mandate on domestic cricket participation. Asking a rather valid question about Kohli and Rohit, Kapil sent a warning to BCCI’s chief selector, Ajit Agarkar.
In the wake of a poor run in Test cricket from India’s mainstay batters, BCCI, once again, mandated domestic cricket participation, making it compulsory for all contractual players to stay in contention for a place in the national squad. Hence, Kohli and Rohit, among other India regulars, made a much-publicised return to Ranji Trophy last month. Rohit played in Mumbai’s home game against Jammu and Kashmir, while Kohli featured in Delhi’s final league game against Railways at the Arun Jaitely Stadium.
Kapil, speaking on the YouTube show ‘Cricket Adda,’ remained unfazed over Rohit and Kohli’s unfavourable return to the red-ball tournament and rather called for a stricter system from the BCCI so that every cricketer plays domestic cricket. He elaborated his point by asking a valid question on whether the two stalwarts would have been forced to play in Ranji had they scored runs in Australia.
“If you are talking about Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, playing Ranji Trophy after 12 years…how is that right? It does not look good at all. It’s not because they did not perform. Whether they score runs or not, you have to score runs in domestic cricket. So yes, certain strong measures have to be taken. But my point is, had we won or had Rohit or Kohli scored runs, would they have played Ranji Trophy? Don’t look at the performances, make the system strong. Whether you score zero or lakhs of runs, play cricket by staying within the system,” he said.
Kapil Dev has his say on BCCI’s ‘wives, family rule’
In the wake of the series loss in Australia, BCCI set a new rule to curb family time for the Indian players on the tour. According to this rule, wives or family members are not allowed with the players beyond a certain period of time.
While he disagreed with it being the reason behind the poor show, Kapil did agree with rule.
He said: “Taking your wives on tours is not wrong, but I feel that if the tour is one month, they should not be allowed for the first 20 days so that the players can play together as a team. Similarly, for a three-month campaign, at least for a month players should be left alone with the team. Also team should travel together, this is not an individual sport.”
