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Home > Sports News > Cricket News > Article > Late Pran Saab offered to fund Kapil Devs training Down Under

Late Pran Saab offered to fund Kapil Dev's training Down Under

Updated on: 13 July,2013 03:18 AM IST  | 
A Correspondent |

Veteran Bollywood actor Pran, who passed away in Mumbai yesterday at the age of 93, was a passionate sports lover.

Late Pran Saab offered to fund Kapil Dev's training Down Under

Pran particularly loved cricket and once offered to pay for Kapil Dev’s trip to Australia where he would be trained by the nation’s fast bowling gurus.


Heart of Gold: Pran
Heart of Gold: Pran


In the book ‘…And Pran – a biography by Bunny Reuben (published by HarperCollins in 2005), the author wrote: When Khalid Ansari announced in his magazine and few newspapers that while he would pay for Kapil’s air fare to Australia, a sponsor was being sought who could cover his other
expenses.


Kapil Dev
Kapil Dev

Pran Saab offered to pay for the entire trip – air fare and everything else too! Later Kapil revealed: “Actually, the board (BCCI) had refused to pay for the training and that report got published in the newspapers. This came to the notice of Pran Saab, an avid cricket lover.

“Pran Saab always felt that I had the potential of becoming a good player. So he wrote a nasty letter to the board and said, ‘If you don’t pay for his training, I’ll pay it.’ Miraculously, the board decided to finance me and I underwent the required training – all thanks to Pran Saab.”

Pran was a close friend of former West Indies captain Frank Worrell. Blood cancer caused the death of the legendary player in 1967.

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