India’s 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev is the latest cricketer to show concerns about the deteriorating health of Vinod Kambli, the former India batter. Dev urged Kambli to go into rehab and get back in good health.
Recently, a video of Vinod Kambli surfaced online where he was giving a speech during a public event honoring his late coach, Ramakant Achrekar. The legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who was also coached by the same coach, was present at the event as well.
During the event, Kambli was seen having difficulty in giving the speech as he struggled to maintain his composure. He got emotional during the event and even held Tendulkar’s hand. Both the players have been friends since their childhood days.
Kapil Dev shows concern over Vinod Kambli’s health
While speaking at the launch of the Vishwa Samudra Open, Kapil Dev spoke about Vinod Kambli’s health issues and claimed that he has to look after himself in every way. While expressing deep concern for Kambli’s health, he hoped that he could spend time with his close friends during these tough times and advised him to go into rehab.
“We can’t look after anybody if he can’t look after himself. More than supporting him, he has to support himself. All the cricketers feel very sad seeing his current condition. I wish his closest friends would spend time with him and encourage him to go back to rehab, get rid of this illness,” Kapil said in the event, as quoted by TOI.
“He has to first go back and look after himself. I am concerned as a sportsperson, and he has been going through a rough time,” the former India allrounder added.
Vinod Kambli’s deteriorating health became a talking point as a video of him surfaced online a few days back. Former India opener Sunil Gavaskar also extended his support to Kambli in these tough times.
Bond between Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli
Both Kambli and Tendulkar still share a special bond with each other since their school days. Both of them studied in Shardashram Vidyamandir school, during which they stitched together a famous partnership of 664 runs in a Harris Shield match.
Both Sachin Tendulkar and Vindo Kambli even played for India together for a few matches. While Sachin went on to become probably the greatest player India have ever produced, Kambli’s career didn’t quite take off despite a lot of promise in his initial days.
Vinod Kambli’s international career
Vinod Kambli played 17 Tests and 104 ODIs for India. He has a fantastic Test record in which he has scored 1084 runs at an impressive average of 54.20. He has struck 4 hundreds and 3 fifties in his Test career which shows how good his conversion rate was.
Kambli also notched up two double-hundreds in his Test career. In ODIs, the left-hander scored 2477 runs at an average of 32.59 and a strike rate of 71.94. He scored 2 hundreds and 14 fifties in his ODI career.