Kapil lashes out at team managment for its poor handling of players

New Delhi, June 29 (UNI) Former captain Kapil Dev today lashed out at the Indian cricket management on the West Indies tour for what he called ''their poor handling of the players''.

''The team managment on away tour always play a very important role. They are supposed to build up the confidence of the players who are not doing well but in West Indies the players confidence is being destroyed,'' he said.

Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the launch of 'Hunt for India's first Cricket star', Kapil expressed surprise at the omission of ''match winning players'' like Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan from the playing eleven in the Test series.

''If Harbhajan and Irfan are dropped surely some thing is wrong out there,'' he said and added, ''Irfan till the other day was being hailed as the brightest star and suddenly something dramatic has happened and he is not in the reckoning.'' He said the performance of India in West Indies had been below expectations while the hosts had played better, ''much beyond the expectation.'' ''There was a tremendous media hype before the team's departure and it looked as if we will sweep the series but the West Indians turned the table on us completely and that has suprised people like me,'' he said.

''Success of any team is based on the confidence in the players and if it (confidence) is broken the team is bound to fail and I think that is what has happened to India in West Indies,'' Kapil added.

He said he was suprised at coach Greg Chappell's remarks about Pathan being low on confidence and added ''it is the job of the team managment to help the player to regain his confidence and not to destroy it by harping on his low points.'' More UNI HSB DH RK1608