Several former India cricketers have come out publicly from time to time about how they were unfairly dropped from the Indian team and not re-selected. Perhaps, there are some players in the country who were dropped from the team despite winning the player of the match award and never got selected again. Mohammad Kaif was one such player who was unceremoniously dropped from the team in 2006 and then could not play for the country.
Pointing to the same, one of his fans on Twitter said that he stopped watching India matches after Kaif was dropped despite scoring 91 against England in the Nagpur Test. Responding to the fan’s tweet, Mohammad Kaif gave a heartwarming reply saying that he should forget everything and support the Indian team in the upcoming ODI World Cup.
Kaif tweeted, “Drop old talk Arif. Cricket is bigger than cricketers. Sport is nothing without fans. World Cup is in India, support Team India and fall in love with the game all over again.” The cricketer’s reply has won a lot of hearts as fans are expressing themselves in the comments section. While some called him a gentleman and non-controversial cricketer, one of the users recalled that Indian cricket had a bad phase with Greg Chappell at the helm of the team.
While fans were talking about Kaif’s knock of 91, the middle-order batsman was not released after that knock. He traveled with the team to the West Indies and played in all four Tests before being dropped. However, Kaif played a brilliant inning of 148 not out in a Test match. Overall, he played 13 Test matches for India and scored 624 runs in 22 innings at an average of 33 with 1 century and 3 half-centuries. Kaif scored 2753 runs in 125 ODIs for India at an average of 32 with 2 centuries and 17 half-centuries.