Bangalore, Mar 11: Four World Cup winning captains today shared a common platform here in the "Keep Cricket Clean" campaign, urging the players to take pride in playing the game for their respective countries.
Clive Lloyd of the West Indies, Kapil Dev of India, Allan Border of Australia and Sri Lanka's Arjuna Ranatunga came together to promote the campaign of Idea Cellular.
"There is so much the authorities can do in this regard. We need to educate the young players that they should not be indulged in match-fixing," Border, who steered Australia to World Cup victory in 1987, said.
Concurring with him, Kapil Dev, Lloyd and Ranatunga also urged the media to play a vital role and expose match fixing.
"If you don't bet, then bookies cannot buy players. Please stop betting for God's sake. Why do people bet on matches? Kapil Dev remarked.
Kapil Dev, who led India to 1983 World Cup win, disagreed there was not much in the game of cricket when they played it.
"There was money then. We earned it and also a name for the country, besides keeping the game clean," he said.
"Money can't buy people. We have enough happiness," Ranatunga, under whose stewardship Sri Lanka became world champions in 1996, said.
All the four lengendary cricketers refused to predict the winner in the on-going World Cup but emotionally batted for their respective countries.
"Let the best team win", they said.
While Ranatunga was concerned about the middle-order batting of Sri Lanka, Kapil Dev pointed to the weak bowling line up of India. PTI
