Kapil Dev finds place in Indian golf team for 2018 tournament in Japan

Thirty-five years ago, he added the biggest feather to his sporting crown by leading India to their first World Cup title in cricket. Twenty-four years after his retirement from the game, former India captain Kapil Dev is set to represent India once again, this time on the golf course.

The 59-year-old former all-rounder has made it to the national golf team which will take part in the 2018 Asia Pacific Seniors. Dev qualified for the golf team on the basis of his show in the All India Senior Tournament which was held at the JP Greens Golf Course in Noida earlier this month.

The tournament will be played from October 17 to 19 at the Tom Watson Golf Club in Miyazaki, Japan, from October 17 to 19. Any male golf player aged 55 years or more is qualified to play for the Asia Pacific Seniors competition.

First golf conversation

Kapil after retirement didn’t want to play another sport in front of the public eye but the comfort and luxury this sport offers helped him get into it.

“A friend of mine called me to play golf and I told him, ‘I don’t want to go out and play in public, after cricket.’ He said that after the first hole nobody will see you, you will be far inside with only your caddie and four friends,” CricketNext cited Dev as saying to indulgexpress.com.

“In golf you have total control on your body, power, strength, and the result is yours. You can’t raise a finger on anybody. I think that gave me the strength, so I can criticise myself and I can say that I played bad.”

Kapil had also qualified for the 2015 edition of the tournament which was organised in China.

He played 131 Tests for India, taking 434 Test wickets. In the one-day internationals, he has taken 253 wickets in 225 matches. Dev’s highest point came in June 1983 when he led India to defeat the mighty West Indies of Clive Lloyd by 43 runs in the final to win the World Cup for the first time.

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