Australia’s Mitchell Starc has surpassed cricket legend Kapil Dev’s tally of 434 Test wickets, a record the former India captain held for more than three decades. For Dev, though, records are part of the journey, with each generation setting its own benchmark.
At the launch of the Bangalore Blasters, a franchise in the inaugural JITO Premier League to be held between August 24 and September 5 in Sri Lanka, owned by Navrathan Jewellers, with Jain Sports as team partner, Dev also spoke about the place of sport in a young person’s life, beginning with a reminder that education cannot take a back seat. “We should teach young people to study hard,” he said. He also had a message for the media, as he urged them to look beyond cricket and give other sports their due, remarking, “Baaki sports ko bhi dekh lena kabhi kabhi, it’s not just cricket.” Later, with his trademark smile, Dev settled into the conversation, speaking with CE about Starc’s milestone and how he dealt with the doubts that came his way during his career, touching on various subjects that passed through his life. Excerpts:
Mitchell Starc has now surpassed your tally of 434 Test wickets. What goes through your mind when you see someone breaking a record you once held?
When somebody crosses your record, they will remember you, so let’s think positive in that sense. Good luck to everybody and good luck to him as well. A milestone always makes you work much harder. I hope Starc crosses 500!
Earlier, you spoke about how people once told you that you wouldn’t get to 400 wickets and even doubted whether you could become a great captain. How did you deal with those doubts?
Take it as a challenge. That’s my motto. If somebody says, ‘You can’t do it, I take it as a challenge. I want to prove them wrong and prove myself right.
How does it feel to know people still celebrate the ’83 team?
A lot of people say we made them proud. I didn’t make people proud as much as I made myself proud. When people enjoy your success, that is when you feel much happier. I played, I won and people liked it. That’s the beauty of cricket. No victory changes you overnight. It happens over a period of time. But when people continue to remember it after 40 years, it makes you happy and you realise its impact. It is like passing college. Your life doesn’t change the next day. The same thing happened with us.
Your ’83 team recently had a reunion in Singapore, what fresh memories did that reunion bring and how was it to have everyone together again?
We keep doing it. We met in London after 25 years and then in Dubai. This time, it was Singapore. We meet in India every year on June 25, but this time the whole team was present with their families. It’s always wonderful.
As someone who haswatched cricket change enormously, is there something about the modern game that you admire and something you think it has lost?
The confidence in young boys is unbelievable. That is the biggest change. They are much better fielders, batsmen and bowlers. As a unit, they are ready to go for a win rather than just to play.
Indian cricket has a growing list of players dealing with injuries and workload issues. Do you think the amount of cricket being played now is becoming a threat to players’ longevity?
Everybody has to know their body and understand how much cricket they can play. Cricket has always been there, although the formats have changed and there’s a lot more T20 cricket now. But I would like to see all the top players go back and play first-class cricket, whether Ranji Trophy, or whatever manner. That would be good for the next generation and they can learn a lot. But I don’t see that. That’s one weak point about these cricketers. Otherwise, they are far better.