Indian cricketing legend Kapil Dev in Chennai
| Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ B
Kapil Dev quickly glances at the bat and ball placed at the entrance of the Madras Management Association’s auditorium. They are a photo prop — for the members attending the launch of popular banker Shyam Srinivasan’s latest book, Better Never Stops, a part-memoir, part-practical leadership primer published by WYZR Books (₹495).If not for the teeming autograph hunters and selfie seekers, Kapil might have been tempted to bowl a couple of yorkers or smash a few sixes.The 67-year-old lanky cricketing legend has seen the highest of highs in the sport; the 1983 World Cup win being the peak. He is currently associated with another sport — golf — which he plays equally passionately.But deep down, Kapil remains the boy who once loved hitting the grounds of Chandigarh with a bat and ball in hand.“People like us... we know only thing: how to play. If we had it our way, we would be playing some kind of sport from childhood till death,” he says, “When we are born, our parents give us a bat and ball to play, but once we turn six or seven, they replace it with a pencil to concentrate on education..”A huge cheerleader for sporting activities, Kapil is peeved about India’s obsession with cricket. “I’m saying this despite being a cricketer myself and fully knowing the love and affection it fetched me,” he smiles, “As a nation, we give 99% to cricket. It’s unfair. Other sports should also get recognition...only then will the nation grow.”
