Kapil mellows, accepts anyone who can deliver results

Guwahati, May 25 (UNI) After rooting for an Indian to take over the reigns of Team India, legendary cricketer Kapil Dev today mellowed down considerably, saying 'anyone who could improve the team's performance' is acceptable.

From ''Who is Whatmore?'' stand yesterday at Kolkata, Kapil today appeared to have accepted reality, saying he would welcome anyone, who could improve the team's performance.

''I am ready to accept any one who can improve Team India's performance. I want results,'' he said.

Kapil, known for his ''desi'' coach stand, wanted bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach Robin Singh to be promoted on full time basis.

Ravi Shastri would be team manager till the end of the current test match.

His soft stand will bring relief to BCCI officials, who is all set to finalise Whatmore's appointment as Indian coach on June 4.

However, Kapil is not impressed by Whatmore's background. He did not read much into his successes with Sri Lanka and then the Bangladesh team.

It was Whatmore, who propelled Sri Lanka to World Cup title in 1996 and then turned the Bangladesh cricket team into a fighting unit.

The seven-member committee to select the new coach will meet at Chennai on June 4. Headed by BCCI president Sharad Pawar, the committee has three ex-captains- Srinivas Venkatraghavan, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri.

The remaining seats have gone to secretary Niranjan Shah, joint-secretary Mohinder Pandove and treasurer N Srinivasan.

The former captains had also been on the committee, which selected Greg Chappell in May 2005.

UNI