Too much cricket is killing public interest, laments Kapil

Durban: Former India captain Kapil Dev feels that "too much cricket" is the reason that there were dismal response from the cricket loving public during the recent ODI series between India and England and the ongoing Test series vs West Indies.

"You cannot have so much cricket that people stop coming even for the ODIs. It was sad thing to see 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," said Kapil ahead of their six-a-side exhibition match organised by Beyond the Boundaries. Kapil criticised BCCI for not understanding the pulse of the Indian public. "The Indian Cricket Board has to understand not to give spectators so much cricket where they start losing interest and the players start lacking intensity and passion." The legendary all-rounder though agreed that Twenty20 cricket has been attracting maximum crowd of late. "Twenty20 is a new format and whenever there is a new thing, people show keen interest in it. But once it becomes a routine, it fades out. People are now getting the thrill out of T20 cricket. But real cricket is still Test cricket. T20 is good but give it 10 years and you would know," he analysed. "Eventually, you will find different types of spectators for all three formats of the game. Young people like rock music but as one grows old, he goes back to the classical music in any case," he explained. PTI