'I played cricket & live life on front-foot'

Anuradha SenGupta: Are you a better businessman or a better cricketer?

Kapil Dev: Let me remain a cricketer. My sports lighting is the biggest business, doing cricket stadiums of hockey and football. And this is what I thought of 14-15 years back. Everybody loves making money and if you make legitimate money, it just gives you a shine on your face and a smile and you feel happy.

Look, after you stopped playing cricket, you are not begging to thee cricket administration for a job. I’m not just depending on earnings from cricket.

Anuradha SenGupta: With the BCCI’s rejoinder- IPL and the kind of success it has seen, do you feel you backed the wrong horse?

Kapil Dev: Not at all, it’s just a question of improving. Can a cricketer a good administrator or not? I think he can be. I have all the respect for the BCCI in every sense and there is no fight. And they didn’t just felicitate us; they felicitated themselves also.

It is the cricket board that we all played for. I like to be an administrator; I like to work on the administration. But nobody gave me the administration and if someone else gives you that opportunity, then you say – this is something I dreamt about and I want to do it. I am very happy because I’d rather be a king in my own den than a small fry in a big place.

Are you happy with what the ICL has achieved?

Kapil Dev: Much more than that. Let’s put it this way – Well done, IPL and well done, ICL because what are we working for is the betterment of the Indian cricket. If somebody says that’s wrong, I will stop tomorrow.

Anuradha SenGupta: But as a businessman, the ICL is not seeing the kind of success it could have seen, does that bother you>

Kapil Dev: How are you presuming that we haven’t seen the success? If we haven’t seen success, then IPL won’t have been there. We saw the success and then they saw the success.

It depends on the sponsor, if he says keep playing, we will play for long. My job is to ensure the cricket we are playing on the ground is of good quality. Are we going to give what we promised the cricketer? Are the former cricketers ready to work for what we are giving them? If yes, then I’m happy; on a scale of 1-10, I’m 10.

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