Dev believes India are more concerned about the financial rewards than the spirit of the game

Former India captain and all-rounder Kapil Dev believes the national team took their eyes off the prize after winning the 2011 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup.

Dev feels as if India became way too overconfident and it resulted in their drastic slide from being the number one Test team to fifth as of today.

“After the World Cup win, I feel they (Dhoni and other players) have lost focus,” Dev said. “I think all the players are self-involved.”

Dev also slammed India’s performance over the past 18 months and added that the team seem to have lost their passion and spirit for the game.

“All players now have their personal coaches, doctors and trainers,” Dev said. “The side lacks the team feeling. Sometimes I see them eager to stand at fine leg after finishing their job. Eventually if you have to win, you have to win as a team.”

However, Dev also voiced his criticisms about India coach Duncan Fletcher as well, saying that the word “coach” could not even be used to describe Fletcher’s role in the Indian side.

“There is a misconception about the word ‘coach’,” Dev added. “It is all about man management. For me the coach is the person who taught me the game. Only your team mates can tell you where you are going wrong.”

The former captain believes it is very tough for foreign coaches to succeed in the subcontinent since there always seems to be a language barrier and their knowledge of the conditions are mediocre at best.

“For foreign coaches communication remains a big problem,” Dev said. “I am a big fan of home-grown coaches. I think Sourav Ganguly didn’t do the right thing by calling in a foreign coach and setting the trend.”

Dev noted that India’s pace attack was always lacking behind Pakistan’s due to the fact that the country does not have many “fast bowling role models”.

“Being a fast bowler is a tough job,” Dev added. “In India every young cricketer wants to become a Sunil Gavaskar or a Sachin Tendulkar. We don’t have enough fast bowling role models. But in Pakistan very child who picks up the ball wants to be Imran [Khan], Wasim [Akram] or Waqar [Younis].”