Durban: Former India captain Kapil Dev feels that the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side is the best-ever team in the history of Indian cricket.
“Without any doubt, I would say that this is the best Indian team ever,” said Kapil, who is here to take part in the second edition of the World Cricket Legends — 15-a-side cricket tournament in the wild between former India and South African players, organised by Beyond Boundaries.
“When you have so many records, so much experience and have done so well, you can’t complain about anything at all,” he added.
Kapil feels that one should never compare two generations and feels that one should always believe that the next generation is better than the previous one.
You can never compare a son with his father… The fathers never had the modern day gadgets that their sons are used to nowadays. Yet, they worked tirelessly to get everything for their kids. That’s why it is unfair to compare two generations. But you always want your son to be better than you,” he said.
“The next generation has always been and will be better than the previous one. If it is not, then we aren’t moving forward as a society. If you, at all, have to compare, I would say this team is far better.”
Kapil, meanwhile, denied that there is any extra pressure on Sachin Tendulkar to score his hundredth international century, stating that the champion batsman has been handling pressure since he made his debut.
“When was Tendulkar not under pressure? Since he was 16, we have been putting pressure on him… Like comparing him with Sir Don Bradman and all that. He is always under pressure. I wonder if he would be able to perform if you don’t write about him, talk to him and there is no crowd.
“I think he can only play under pressure… And the good part is, he is 99 not out. He likes to take pressure,” he said. He also feels that “too much cricket” is the reason that there were dismal response from the public during the recent ODI series between India and England and the ongoing Test series versus West Indies.
“You cannot have so much cricket that people stop coming even for the ODIs… It was sad to see that during the matches against England, we didn’t even see 20,000 people turning up. That’s what you get when you have too much of cricket,” Kapil said.
Courtesy The Telegraph
