Kapil begins a new innings

By Vijay Lokapally

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 22. The caddie is waiting for him. So is his sporting competitor and it will be a stiff `fight' over 18 holes at the Delhi Golf Club. For Kapil Dev golf is high on the weekend agenda and these sessions are not to be missed at any cost.

A natural sportsman, Kapil has taken to golf in a big way, nurturing a dream of representing the country in this wonderful sport, having severed his links with cricket. There is another dream he is chasing these days - of luring youngsters away from drugs.

The former India captain and one of the game's greatest all- rounders is back from a trip to Northern Ireland. Not from a benefit cricket match or a golf competition but a trip which highlights the other side of many top sportsmen of yesteryear.

In an effort to educate the youth about the good things of life and wean them away from drugs and terrorism, a cream of top stars of the past have come together. The formation of Laureus World Sports Award (LWSA) may be old news but not the pleasant development that the foundation has begun work in quite an earnest way.

In troubled times and troubled states, these sportsmen have taken upon themselves a noble task. The likes of Pele, Michael Jordan, Edwin Moses, Ivan Lendl, Franz Beckenbauer, Boris Becker, Sergei Bubka, Dawn Fraser, Bobby Charlton, Nadia Comaneci are engaged in a mission aimed to help misguided youth.

In the United States, the LWSA is trying to popularise floodlit basketball so that youngsters spend time on the courts than in alleys selling drugs or snatching valuables. In Kenya, a similar project has been undertaken to attract youngsters to come and play football.

In this elite group of sportsmen are three cricketers - Viv Richards, Ian Botham and Kapil Dev. ``It's a great honour and I'm very excited about this entire project. It'll do a lot of good to the world in these difficult times,'' said Kapil, sharing his experience of the visit to Northern Ireland.

Kapil and Botham spent a lot of time with kids and made them understand the importance of sports in the lives of people wanting to make good use of the facilities around them. ``Sports does bring people together,'' said Kapil as he gladly narrated how he enjoyed the company of Botham and how they taught kids the basics of cricket. ``Interacting with kids is a great joy and I'll always have happy memories of my visit to Northern Ireland. Kids don't harbour any hatred against anyone. It is taught to them by grown- ups and our job is to bring such kids back to the mainfold through sports,'' said Kapil.

``We are not training them to be champions although we would ultimately like to see them lead a good and healthy life,'' said Kapil. ``Our aim is to ensure that the time they would normally spend in doing other things which could damage their reputation, they spend in making some constructive contribution towards building a career for themselves. It could be in sports. It could be in other spheres of life,'' he said.

Kapil, who had visited Germany recently as part of promotional work for this venture, said he had submmited a proposal to revive the game of hockey in Punjab. ``We have lost out in the race to be the best hockey nation mainly because there are no more youngsters coming out of Punjab. It pains me to see India's decline in the world of hockey,'' he said.

The project is under consideration even though Kapil was confident that the proposal would come through. ``We are trying to get the youngsters back to the hockey field instead of plotting to hurt and damage fellow countrymen. This terrorism has to be wiped out and we at the LWSA are striving to help nations get the best out of their youth. Our task is to motivate them and provide them the best of the facilities to pursue what interests them,'' Kapil added.

The LWSA is a very big project, according to Kapil, and unlikely to die. ``It'll only grow in the times to come and kids will benefit a lot from the expertise of former stars,'' he said.

Kapil has been enjoying his new role as a sports ambassador for the LWSA. ``It was nice sharing the experience with kids. They are so innocent and what I like is they absorb what is taught to them so quickly. I look forward to more such visits where I can spend time with youngsters,'' said the former India cricketer.

The kids love to be in the company of legends and the legends in turn do not mind being kids for some time. It would not be long before some of those legends descend on India. ``Once the project on hockey is cleared, I'll get some of these top stars to India,'' concluded Kapil.

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Section  : Sport
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