Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Legendary Indian cricketer Kapil Dev has called for talent to be groomed at school level in the kingdom so that Bahraini youngsters could one day turn the dream of playing Test cricket into reality.
The former World Cup-winning captain, who was in the kingdom as a guest speaker for the Bahrain India Society’s monthly social gathering, said: ìThe International Cricket Council (ICC) should work closely with the authorities on the island to provide proper infrastructure to promote the game from the grassroots.
ìI would like to see more than the present 10 countries playing Test cricket and I feel it is high time that the world cricket authority took a proactive step to promote the game in more countries,î said India’s most prolific all-rounder, who is the only cricketer to record the ‘Quadruple Double’ of 4,000 runs and 400 wickets in Test cricket.
He also admitted he was pained that international cricket was not currently being played in neighbouring Pakistan for security reasons and said that was another huge challenge for the ICC. ìIf international teams don’t play in Pakistan, then the game will suffer there as youngsters may not be drawn to it anymore," he warned. ìI would be very sad if such a thing were to happen because a lot of cricketing talent would go to waste."
Keen golfer Kapil last visited Bahrain five years ago to play in a celebrity golf tournament to mark the opening of the Montgomerie-designed course at the Royal Golf Club. He said that it was good to hear that another similar event was being staged before the coming F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix ‘since it was being played on a world class course’. When asked whether he played on the Indian circuit, he light-heartedly said that he played on the ‘Saturday-Sunday circuit’.
