Legendary Indian cricketer, Kapil Dev reckons that believes the country’s cricketers “prioritize IPL” over national assignments and the onus is on the BCCI for pure scheduling as they have comminuted “mistakes” during the ongoing T20 World Cup. India failed to make it to the semifinals of the ICC event, as they suffered back-to-back early losses in the ‘Super 12’ stage. New Zealand clinched the last available semifinal spot on Sunday to knock Virat Kohli’s men out of the tournament.

During a recent chat with ABP News, Kapil Dev said, “When players prioritize IPL over playing for the country, what can we say? Players should take pride in playing for their nation. I don’t know their financial condition, so can’t say much…I feel that first in line should be the country’s team and then franchises. The responsibility is now on the BCCI to plan its cricket better. To not repeat mistakes we committed in this tournament is the biggest learning for us.”

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India pacer Jasprit Bumrah and outgoing bowling coach Bharat Arun had highlighted that players are mentally fatigued as they have been on the road for close to six months since the IPL 2021 began in April.  Talking about the same, Kapil Dev said there should have been a gap between the second leg of the IPL and the T20 World Cup.

The Indian legend said, “It’s time to look at the future. You should start planning right away. It’s not that since the World Cup is over, the Indian team’s entire cricket is also over. Go and plan,” said the 1983 World Cup-winning all-rounder. “I just feel that there should have been some gap between IPL and the World Cup. But this is certainly there that our players today have a lot of exposure, but they could not make the most of it (at the T20 World Cup).”

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It is the first time since 2012 that India made an early exit from an ICC event and condemning that, Kapil Dev explained, “everyone should take ownership of the loss…They (top players) have done well in their careers but if you don’t do well, you will face criticism… Ravi Shastri, Virat Kohli have good track records but if you don’t win ICC events, it will hurt them more…”

India is locking horns with Namibia in their inconsequential last ‘Super 12’ match on Monday evening.