Visakhapatnam: Kapil Dev clean bowls young cricketers with his outswingers

He gives them tips on to how to handle pressure on and off the field

What happens when budding cricketers meet a cricketer of yesteryears, who is a legend. They are awestruck by the very presence of him.

This is what happened when the cricketers from Coastal Riders (CR) and Bezawada Tigers (BT), met the captain of the 1983 World Cup winning team, Kapil Dev, here on Sunday.

The legend was here to participate as the chief guest for the finals of the first season of the Andhra Premier League (APL), which was to be played between CR and BT.

But due to incessant rain, the finals had to be postponed to Monday. But before leaving the city, Kapil, who was a tad disappointed, as a ball could not be bowled, met the cricketers of the both teams in the dressing room, and the cricketers made the best of it.

He made it a point to meet the cricketers and spend some time, said R.V.C.H. Prasad, governing body member of the APL.

The cricketers encircled him in the dressing room (students) and squatted on the floor like ‘shishyas’, to listen to him and Kapil, spoke to them, as if they were part of his 1983 team and not their guru.

He spoke about how to handle pressure on and off the field and when asked by a cricketer how he handled pressure during the 1983 World Cup, he said, “There is a big difference between pressure and pleasur’. For me the game and the matches were a pleasure and I did not allow pressure creep into me or my team members. We enjoyed every bit of the game and probably that is why we were successful..”