Legendary cricketer Kapil Dev, who led India to their first World Cup triumph in 1983, made his debut under the captaincy of Bishan Singh Bedi and played under Sunil Gavaskar and S Venkataraghavan as well.
In an interaction with former India opener WV Raman, India’s best seam-bowling all-rounder revealed that he was scared of Venkataraghavan when he first came into the side in the 1978-79 season.
According to a report, Kapil, who played four Tests and three ODIs under Venkataraghavan’s captaincy, revealed, “I was very scared of him. Firstly he only used to speak in English and secondly, we all know his anger. Even when he was an umpire he used to give not out in a way as if he was scolding the bowler.”
The legendary player went on to add that when he had gone to England in ’79, Venkataraghavan was captain. He revealed that he used to find a place where Venkataraghavan could not see him.
“We had Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar, so he couldn’t say much to them. And naturally, whenever he saw me, he used to fire up. I used to have breakfast sitting in one corner because I was a heavy eater and he would be like ‘he’s always eating,” he revealed.
As per a report in Times Now, Kapil also narrated an incident involving Venkataraghavan from a Test match between India and West Indies in Barbados. Kapil was leading the side and Venkataraghavan was playing in the final stages of his career.
The report stated that Venkataraghavan did not get a chance to bowl for a long time in the Test match and ended up asking Kapil when will he get his chance. The cricketer recalled that it was a bouncy pitch so fast bowlers were bowling more and the first spinner he introduced was Ravi Shastri.
According to Kapil Dev, Venkataraghavan was walking from the slips and he called out Kapil Dev’s name.
“I said ‘Yes Venky!’ By that time I had started to call him Venky but before that, it was ‘sir’ only. He said ‘Did I say I don’t want to bowl?’ I didn’t understand who was the captain, he or me. I said ‘Yes Venky your time will come’. His nature was so lovable. He used to scold despite me being the captain,” Kapil recalled.
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