Suveen K Sinha: Straight from the heart

BACKSTAGE

Kapil Dev has made three attempts at telling his life's story. Cricket My Style came out in the early 1980s and By God's Decree in the middle of that decade. Straight From The Heart came just a few years ago, much after his retirement, his success in stadia lighting systems business, match fixing allegations, and so on.

Cricketers are not necessarily good writers, but, despite collaborating with writers, Kapil's biographies ended up being thin affairs not only in volume.

That is strange given the immense raw material at his command. With due respect to Dhyan Chand, Milkha Singh, Prakash Padukone, P T Usha and Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil is our biggest sporting hero who broke the reign of big city boys on the Indian cricket team.

Kapil struck the ball with as much venom as he spewed while swinging it, mostly away from right-handers. Many players win matches, Kapil won matches that spun stories.

The son of a Chandigarh timber merchant forced Pakistani batsmen to call for helmets on his debut tour in 1978-79, won an epic battle for supremacy with Ian Botham on the 1982 tour to England though India lost the series, brought home the World Cup the next year and became the highest wicket taker for some time. He oozed joy and fearlessness.

Ample angst came from the match-fixing allegations, which made him cry on television when dissected by a merciless Karan Thapar, and triumph from being declared Wisden Cricketer of the Century.

His books perhaps suffer because Kapil's articulation is not better than a tail-ender's batting. Talking to him is at once agonising, amusing and touching. His words, not always well chosen, are laden with emotion, and you can't shake off the feeling that a lot more of it is bristling to come out.

Yet, he conveys a rare sincerity of intent and purpose "" one reason why many of us found it difficult to believe that he fixed matches.

At the press conference last Monday to parade the recruits of Indian Cricket League, Kapil, the chairman of its executive board, was in his pomp. Tall and fit even 14 years since he quit playing, Kapil, 48, waved his hand at the posse of cricketers and said: "The courage these people have showed, even I didn't have at that age. We need people like this who want to make their own decisions. They take pride to play for their country, not being pushed or threatened by someone. What we need is to entertain the people in this country." Not quite content with this, he added: "I will back you till the last day I live."

Sacked as the chairman of the National Cricket Academy two days later, he reacted almost jauntily: "I think they (the cricket board) felt it was below their dignity to talk to me. They have been doing this for the last 70 years and I'm afraid they will continue like this."

Eventually, Kapil may end up thanking BCCI for its violent response to ICL. The drama unfolding before us will make Kapil's fourth biography something to look forward to.

It may not be a great piece of literature, but that will not matter so long as Kapil adheres to the principle he enunciated at the end of By God's Decree. "My philosophy is simple. Play to win. Get your runs and your wickets. Never stop trying. Hit the ball, over the slips, over the ropes." His sincerity will take care of the rest.