Kapil Dev

Chandigarh: Former India captain Kapil Dev on Sunday slammed Test discard Yuvraj Singh for attending late night parties instead of focusing on cricket.

“He (Yuvraj) should focus on cricket and work hard ... He must exhibit his talent at a proper place rather than elsewhere,” Kapil said at a ‘meet the press’ programme here.

Drawing parallels between Yuvraj and his father Yograj, a former Test cricketer, Kapil said: “If Yuvraj devotes even 50 per cent of the hard work that his father put in, no one can stop him from remaining in the (Test) team.

“He (Yuvraj) is a talented player. But he should spend more time on the ground and remain focused on the game,” said the country’s only World Cup-winning captain.

“He is a young player ... I can understand that a player of his age does have a lot of courage,” he added.

On BCCI’s love for foreign coaches, Kapil said: “I think the Board has become smart ... The country has no dearth of good players who can become good coaches.”

“Big organisations should know how to use players like me and Sunil Gavaskar. If they are failing to do so it’s their mistake,” Kapil, who had taken 434 wickets in 131 Tests, said.

Without taking any names, he alleged that a few “selfish persons” didn’t want to let the former cricketers come forward to serve the game. “Gavaskar wants to work for the country ... I do it to the best of my ability, what else can I do,” he said.

Drawing parallels between the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL), of which he is the executive board chairman, and the Indian Premier League (IPL), Kapil said: “There is nothing wrong in more than one organisation working to promote cricket ... One organisation cannot look after everything.”