“ ‘He can’t captain because he doesn’t speak English’: Agitated Axar Patel lifts lid on language discrimination”, Hindustan Times, November 13, 2025
“In an interaction with The Indian Express ahead of India’s first Test against South Africa, Axar questioned the long-held perception that only players fluent in English or those with a certain body language are seen as “captaincy material.”
“People start saying ‘oh he is not a captaincy material, he doesn’t speak English. How will he talk? Yeh hai, voh hai’. Arre! Captain’s work is not to just talk,” Axar said. “Captain’s work is to know the player and see how to get the best out of him — what’s his strength, what’s his weakness. Captain knows that I have this player and what I need to do to get work out of him.”
Axar, who led Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League this year, said the idea that a captain must look or speak a certain way is rooted in social perception rather than cricketing reality. “If we say ‘personality chahiye, acha English bolna chahiye’ — that’s a perception made by the public based on their own thinking,” he explained. “It’s important that people have to change their personal thinking. Stop thinking ‘oh his personality is good, he can speak English – so he is captain material’. One thing about captaincy is there should be no language barrier……”
Read full article at hindustantimes.com
