Kuldeep Yadav makes it clear that cricket is just the sport he plays. Football is where his heart belongs.
He is one of the world’s premier white-ball bowlers, and has over 350 wickets across formats for India. The 31-year-old is a key member of India’s all conquering T20 side and is a two-time World Cup winner. He became among the most expensive spinners in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) when Delhi Capitals paid £1.04 million to retain his services for this season.
Yadav belongs firmly among the top echelon of the game. Yet beyond Test cricket and clips of his own bowling, he hardly watches it.
“[Watching] football is total joy,” he tells ESPN.
“You want to watch the best teams play. Even in the Premier League, I watch all the games from mid-table to lower-table teams when they play against each other, whether it’s Fulham or Brighton … Nottingham [Forest]. They’re good teams.”
He has a soft spot for Liverpool but Barcelona is his team. While he began following Barça during their heady days under Pep Guardiola, the love affair truly began when Neymar joined the club in 2013.
Yadav dials in for the interview with ESPN from the Delhi Capitals camp, and says he spent the previous night watching Neymar’s Brazilian club Santos play in the Copa Sudamericana — South America’s equivalent of the Europa League.
“He’s been playing really well, you watch him play. I watch every game, yesterday he played and he was unbelievable. He’s someone who has been God-gifted, so I love to watch him play. He’ll be there in the World Cup for sure,” Yadav says.
“In cricket also, there’s only one Sachin Tendulkar. In football also, there has been only one [Lionel] Messi, [Diego] Maradona, Pele. There’s one Neymar.”
So how does an international cricketer find the time to follow football so keenly, especially with the time difference?
Yadav says the IPL schedule makes things easier this time of the year. The two-month long summer tournament in India predominantly involves night matches, and the late finishes mean training sessions are held in the evening. This allows Yadav to keep across UEFA Champions League matches, which kick off post-midnight in India. Bedtimes aren’t as lax when he’s on international duty.
The Indian’s passion for the game has grown beyond just consumption. In August last year, he launched a YouTube channel dedicated to football. This was, in part, due to Liverpool’s new teen sensation Rio Ngumoha.
“The Liverpool versus Newcastle game [where Ngumoha scored a late winner] was unbelievable and I just wanted to say something about the game,” he said.
“I was having breakfast, there’s a lot of background noise, a lot of voices. But I just wanted to record and post it on YouTube.”
India’s jam-packed schedule means Yadav isn’t the most consistent creator, but he has amassed nearly 27,000 subscribers on his channel. Listening to him talk about Newcastle’s high press or Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola’s tactical setup makes clear he’s no casual.
Former Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim, too, was impressed by his ball knowledge.
During India’s tour of England last summer, the team had a meet-and-greet with the United squad and there Yadav had a long chat with Amorim.
“I said, ‘When you play a back three, what are you thinking about the midfield?,” Yadav said.
“He said, ‘What are you thinking? I said ‘You know what, If I have to say one thing, I’d tell you to sign [Carlos] Baleba because you need a holding midfielder in your team because there’s no one.”
Amorim was stunned momentarily before telling him that the Brighton midfielder was proving expensive to sign. Yadav spoke of interacting with Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro that day, and said the Premier League player he’s most keen to meet next is Eberechi Eze.
He still rues his missed chance last summer, when the Indian team had a camp next to the Crystal Palace training ground. A few of his teammates met Eze, but Yadav was tied up in a session.
While the 31-year-old admires Eze, he isn’t the biggest fan of his current club Arsenal’s playing style.
“I think [Mikel Arteta] has a bit of a conservative approach. He has been [that way] over the years,” Yadav said.
“Obviously, consistency matters a lot. He has been good with that, but ultimately people want to watch football, how you play football and they want to enjoy Arsenal, not to go in that shell.
“OK, they’re not going to concede, but they’re not going to score as well. So that’s why people love to watch Brighton play, Newcastle play, Barcelona play. They play good football. They like to compete against the best.”
The spinner is forthright in his views on playing to entertain fans. It’s not an opinion as much as it’s a belief, and it’s something that has shaped his own playing career. Yadav says he isn’t the type of defensive bowler to prevent runs; he is always attacking and looking for wickets.
Delhi Capitals will hope Yadav’s wickets lead them to their maiden IPL title this year. Once the season is done, he will be involved in India’s home series against Afghanistan before traveling to England for a white-ball tour in July.
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The cricket schedule is a relentless one.
Once Yadav’s playing career is done, though, he wants to extend his involvement in football beyond the screen and play his part in helping his home country, which has still yet to qualify for a men’s or women’s World Cup.
“I feel like because I have good knowledge about the game and I still feel there’s a lot to gain from it, so I might think about doing something for football in India,” he said. “Because in India we have talent, but we don’t have that space and infrastructure. Maybe in the next couple of years, you’ll see an academy coming up.”
