Kapil Dev Remembers His Childhood Coach Desh Prem Azad and Talks About His Old Days

India’s first World Cup winner and country’s finest ever all-rounder Kapil Dev remembered his early day and also shared his favourite time pass in Chandigarh. Dev also knew as the Haryana Hurricane trained Desh Prem Azad who took him under his under his wings in 1971. Dev came to the Indian in 1978 and made both his ODI and Test debut against Pakistan. Dev played 131 Tests and picked up 434 wickets and scored 5,248.

In the limited overs format, he played 225 ODI’s and picked up 253 wickets, scoring 3,783 runs while leading the national side to a World Cup glory in 1983. Dev was in Chandigarh to endorse a start-up called Pumpkart spoke about he skipped school to watch movies:

“At that time, there were only four theatres in Chandigarh. We would frequent Jagat, Neelam, KC, and Kiran. KC would screen an English film every Sunday.” 

Kapil also remembers his favourite hangout places in the city:

“Since I stayed in Sector 16, Sector 17 was a favourite hangout and Sector 16’s market was like a second home. People would go to the University to have tea and coffee, but there wasn’t any geri culture back then.”  

Kapil also remembered his coach Desh Prem Azad and The Tribune’s then sports editor Samuel Banerjee.

“Tribune was the only newspaper in Chandigarh then and I would eagerly wait for my picture, or a write-up, to feature in the daily. Samuel uncle and I connected because of our passion for cricket. He was friends with DP Azad, who was a very strict coach. We were scared of him. He made a clear line of difference between a coach and a player; you couldn’t joke around with him. Times have changed now. You wouldn’t come across a player without a mobile phone or a student without a calculator.”   

He also spoke about Indian Cricket League’s failure:

“Apart from commercial factors, the ICL lacked the support of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and International Cricket Council. It was a business venture that came way ahead of its time.”

Bollywood director Kabir Khan is directing a movie on the 1983 World Cup triumph. However, Dev clarified that the movie is being made on the World Cup triumph and is not a biopic in him:

“It is a film on 1983 cricket match, not about me. I would be fine with someone making a biopic on me, if they wanted to.”