Former Indian captain Kapil Dev joined the club versus country debate in the wake of Gautam Gambhir’s injury controversy, saying that the cricketers have the right to choose whether to play for the national team or for the cash—rich IPL.
“Everybody has the right to choose whether they want to play for the country or for their club. I loved to play for my country and I did it. But, things have changed now and life has changed. You cannot control anybody’s life at this age.
Whatever anybody wants to do he should be allowed to do,” Kapil said when asked about the raging debate.
Top Indian cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag will be missing the West Indies tour due to injury or pulling themselves out and this has kicked up the country versus club debate that the cricketers have started to prefer the IPL over playing for the national team.
Asked if there was too much cricket being played these days and how much rest a cricketer needs, Kapil said, “Ask this to the cricketers, they are playing in these times. So they will be in a better position to answer.”
“I really don’t know. For some it’s too less cricket while for some it’s too much cricket. During our days, cricket was played for about four to six months in a year. Nowadays, they are playing cricket about 10 months. So it’s not fair to make a comparison,” said the 1983 World Cup winning captain at the sidelines of a mobile phone launch here.
