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Yograj Singh and Kapil Dev
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Yograj Singh and Kapil Dev
Former cricketer Yograj Singh, father of the celebrated Yuvraj Singh, shared a deeply personal account of the animosity he harbored against legendary Indian cricketer Kapil Dev. In an interview, Yograj candidly expressed his anger over being dropped from the Indian team during Kapil Dev’s captaincy.
Yograj, who represented India in one Test and six ODIs during the 1980-81 tour of Australia and New Zealand, accused Kapil Dev of dropping him from the team without any justified reason. This decision, according to Yograj, led to a violent confrontation that nearly escalated further.
“When Kapil Dev became captain of India, North Zone, and Haryana, he dropped me for no reason,” Yograj recalled. “My wife urged me to confront him. I went to Kapil's house, pistol in hand, with the intention of confronting him violently. I told him, ‘I want to put a bullet through your head, but I am not doing it because you have a very pious mother standing here.’ I left after that encounter, deciding that my son, Yuvraj, would be the one to play cricket, not me."
Yograj’s bitterness extended to the late Bishan Singh Bedi, whom he blamed for his exclusion from the team. Yograj claimed that Bedi, as the chief selector at the time, had plotted against him due to his close association with Sunil Gavaskar, which he believed led to his exclusion.
“They thought I was Gavaskar's man because I was playing cricket in Mumbai. I never forgave Bedi. The man died on his bed,” he added bitterly.
Despite the passage of time, Yograj revealed that the resentment remained strong. “In 2011, when India won the World Cup, there was only one man crying, and it was Kapil Dev. I sent him a paper cutting showing that my son had outperformed him in the World Cup,” he said.
Yograj also recalled a more recent attempt at reconciliation by Kapil Dev.
“Kapil sent me a WhatsApp message, saying that we would be brothers in the next life, born of the same mother. He wanted to meet me, but the vengeance still hurts,” he said, illustrating the deep emotional scar left by past events.