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'After Ahmedabad we can now dream of WC'

Cricketing legend Kapil Dev today said the Indian team's incredible victory over the West Indies last night at Ahmedabad had bolstered the nation's dreams of winning the World Cup, but running between the wickets and fielding still continued to be grey areas.

"It was a fantastic victory. These boys played extremely well. Now we can dream a little more about winning the World Cup next year in South Africa," Kapil told newspersons in Kolkata.

"But they must improve their running between the wickets and fielding. A team has to be good in these two vital departments to even think of winning the quadrennial showpiece," the former allrounder, who led India to World Cup glory in 1983, said.

Kapil, however, pointed out that the Indian bowlers had 'looked shattered' against the onslaught by the West Indies batsmen.

Asked to comment on the Indian bowling, which looked lacklustre in the one day series so far, he said "the problem with bowlers in one dayers is that they do not swing the ball much, but only try to contain the rival batsmen".

"But this is quite natural, because bowlers are afraid that if they go for big swings, the umpires will call wides. So, the captains always ask them to bowl straight and upto the batsmen."

In this context, Kapil commented that one day cricket has been more kind to the batsmen than bowlers. "Other than bringing about tremendous improvement in fielding and running between wickets, the shorter version of the game propels batsmen to go for improvised shots which has put bowlers under lot more pressure".

On the swashbuckling display of the Indian willowers at Ahmedabad, he said the current set of players were stronger than their predecessors. "They hit sixes like anything. Even (Sanjay) Bangar hit an overboundary over point."

Kapil, known for his agressive batting during his playing days, however, said that the superior quality of bats available in the market now has also made strokemaking easy.

Asked whether the Indian team had peaked too early before the World Cup, scheduled to be held in South Africa in Feburary-March next year, he said "I think its ok to attain one's best two months prior to the big event".

But Kapil cautioned the Indian players to guard against injury. "They are playing so much cricket. So they must be careful," he added.

Kapil also refused to draw comparison between his world beating team of 1983 and the current squad saying that it would be an injustice to the latter. "My team also had its weaknesses in aspects like running between wickets and fielding. But since we won, this has been forgotten."

"So, in any comparison between the two sides, people would always rate my side higher as we attained success. This, I think, is unfair to the boys playing now".

Also read: Which was the best -- the 1983 or 1985 team?

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