'Don't play': Kapil Dev gives simple advise to players on pressure. Angry fans call it 'foolish, immature'

Former Indian Cricket team captain Kapil Dev has a very 'simple' suggestion to players who feel that there is lot of pressure in playing cricket. Speaking at an event, the 1983 world cup winning captain said he never understand words like "pressure" and "depression".

Mocking them as "American words" he said that if players feel there is a pressure in playing IPL, then they should not play the league. He even said that even students of class 10 and 12 now-a-days says that they feel the "pressure", which again, he said he never found logic.

Speaking at the ‘Chat with Champions’ event, he said "I hear a lot of times on TV that there's a lot of pressure on players to play in the IPL. Then I only say one thing, don't play. If a player has passion, there will be no pressure."


"I can't understand these American terms, like depression. I'm a farmer and we play because we enjoy the game, and there can't be any pressure while enjoying the game," he added.


“I remember going to a school where students of class 10 and 12 told him they face lot of pressure. I said, 'So also face pressure!'. You people sit in air-conditioned rooms with fees paid by your parents, teachers cannot beat you up, then were is this pressure coming from? Ask me what pressure is all about. Teachers used to beat us up and then would ask where we had gone. Students need to convert this into pleasure and fun, pressure is a very wrong word.” he added.

Notably a number of cricketers have spoken about growing amount of hectic cricket and their mental health in recent times. Recently, Ben Stokes took a break for an indefinite period to prioritise his mental health. Modern and formers greats including Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have openly talked about these issues.

During a press conference in 2019 Indian star batsman Virat Kohli admitted that he had nowhere to go to during his lull period. He had said, “To be honest, I couldn’t have said I am not feeling great mentally and I want to get away from the game because you never know how that’s taken."

Similarly, one of the world's greatest batsman, Sachin Tendulkar once said he suffered from anxiety during 10-12 years of his playing career. “I felt the anxiety for 10-12 years, had many sleepless nights before a game. Later on I started accepting that it was part of my preparation. Then I made peace with times I was not able to sleep in the night. I would start doing something to keep my mind comfortable."

However, fans did not like Kapil's simple advice. Fans didn't like the linkage and felt that the former cricketer was rather mocking mental health.