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When ‘generous gentleman’ Pran helped Kapil Dev

Pran,who passed away at the age of 93 in Mumbai, Friday night, was an ardent cricket lover, so much so that he agreed to finance Indian cricketer Kapil Dev’s training trip.

Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Remembered as one of the finest artists of Bollywood, late actor Pran Krishan Sikand, well known as Pran, had an unheard magnanimous side too. The veteran, who passed away at the age of 93 in Mumbai, Friday night, was an ardent cricket lover, so much so that he agreed to finance Indian cricketer Kapil Dev’s training trip. The thespian appeared in over 350 movies and garnered public admiration for his villainous roles. But in reality he was very much unlike his onscreen personality. As soon as Pran came to know that BCCI refused to finance Kapil Dev’s training trip to Australia, he wrote to the board expressing his wish in bearing all the expenses of the trip. The former Captain of Indian cricket team Kapil later 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,” he added.