When Kaps wept on television

Kapil Dev on a 2005 visit to Mumbai. Pic/Rane Ashish

While Indian cricket fans lap up the excitement the Indian Premier League brings to them night after night, things were not quite so fulfilling and enriching 25 years ago. The 2000 match fixing controversy took a toll on every stakeholder of the game, including the greatest of names. One of those all-time greats - Kapil Dev - then the Indian team's coach, cried on television in a BBC interview with Karan Thapar. If June 25, 1983 provided Kapil Dev his greatest cricketing moment, May 10, 2000 could well be ranked as one of his darkest days. That's when the world saw him in their living rooms, unsuccessfully supressing his feelings at being accused of offering teammate Manoj Prabhakar a bribe to underperform. While Prabhakar did not reveal a name in his original piece on the offer, former BCCI president Indrajit Singh Bindra told CNN in an interview that Prabhakar had told him that the offer came from Kapil Dev.

The tears that the celebrated cricketer shed are etched in the memory of people who watched and didn't watch that particular episode of Thapar's HardTalk. In his book, Devil's Advocate published by Harper Collins, Thapar recalled: "For the first ten minutes he [Kapil Dev] took my questions squarely on the chin. He seemed unruffled and undisturbed. But when I asked if he was worried about the fact that history might remember him not just as the captain of India's World Cup-winning cricket team or the highest wicket-taker, but also as someone accused of accepting money to throw a match, a dam inside seemed to burst and his emotions poured out in a flood of tears. It happened so suddenly, it took me aback. Tears rolled down his cheeks, his voice began to quiver and then actually broke. His nose started to run. In fact, he was crying like a baby. Watching Kapil, I knew I had a moment of television magic on my hands."

Since details of the interview had been released by a national newspaper a few days before it was aired to the world, and the fact that it became more of a talking point on the night of the telecast, reactions from the sporting fraternity to the emotional interaction became a necessity. This newspaper reached out to billiards world champion Michael Ferreira, 1971 West Indies tour hero Dilip Sardesai, former Mumbai captain Milind Rege, stumper Chandrakant Pandit and international umpire Piloo Reporter. Never known to hold back, Sardesai said, "Breaking down did not make for a good sight. It was sad to see such a great player being brought to his knees." Chandrakant Pandit, who played under Kapil Dev, felt there was no need for his former captain to defend himself. "In South Africa, there is a man who answers to the name of Hansie Cronje, a man who has admitted to being dishonest. And here we have our very own Kapil Dev, who gave his all for India, pleading for people to believe him," Pandit remarked.

Ferreira tried putting himself in Kapil Dev's shoes: "I would have been white hot with fury at unsubstantiated allegations and I doubt whether I would have broken down. All I can say is that Kapil's reaction was most out of character."

The late Rege was profound. "I have never felt so depressed in my life. To watch one of the finest players to grace this game be torn to shreds in front of millions of people was very sad indeed. I blame the Indian cricket board. Kapil Dev is the national coach and the Board does not say a word. This naivety is ridiculous. My heart went out to Kapil last night - after achieving so much, he had to defend himself," said Rege. Reporter, another deceased member of Mumbai's cricketing fraternity, was surprised at Kapil Dev's tear-filled utterances. After all, he had a good understanding of his physical and mental toughness through all the 12 Tests he umpired involving India (Reporter stood in two Pakistan vs West Indies Tests in 1986-87). "The investigations have already started, so the truth can be known only later. Many a time, a person is more sensitive, is not able to control his emotions and so breaks down. The Kapil I know was always a fighter, not a person of that sort," said Reporter.

Sunil Gavaskar's heart went out to his former teammate. In his Sunday mid-day column, he wrote: "It was heart rendering to see him on TV and ask all of us watching the question: ‘Is this what one gets after playing for the country for 20 years?' Does anyone have an answer to Kapil's anguished query? We all have our weaknesses, for if we were perfect then we all would be Gods but when accusing someone of ‘treason' and that is what it is in my book for selling one's country, then that accusation must be backed by solid incontrovertible proof. Let us not spoil a reputation that has taken years and years of toil to build on mere hearsay." CBI found no evidence against Kapil Dev while Prabhakar was banned by the BCCI for five years. Although the scars of that controversy may stay, Kapil Dev keeps smiling. And we in this city will see more of him through his association with a team in the May 26-June 8 T20 Mumbai League.

mid-day's group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.