Desh Prem Azad — the man behind cricketer Kapil Dev who brought India’s first Cricket world cup breathed his last on Friday after a brief illness.

75-year-old Dronacharya Awardee died in a private hospital at Mohali in the afternoon after a brief illness. “Infection was in his lungs and due to diabetes and old age, he was not feeling well for the last one and a half month,” Azad’s son Munish Aggarwal told The Pioneer.

Azad’s condition deteriorated during the last fortnight, but showing little signs of improvement since past few days. “He had visited Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) three days back, but thereafter his condition went down and was hospitalized at Max hospital in Phase VI. But it couldn’t improve and at around 1 pm he breathed his last,” added Munish.

Azad, who remained legendary cricketer Kapil Dev’s coach in early 1970’s, is survived by his wife and two sons — both custom officers. He had also played 19 first class matches and scored 658 runs and took eight wickets but was known more for his ability to spot and hone talent. Other than Kapil, Azad had imparted technique of best cricket to Ashok Malhotra, Yograj Singh, Chetan Sharma, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh.

India’s World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev was quoted once as saying that Azad had a major role in his meteoric rise. “DP Azad’s strictness helped me become the Indian captain,” he had said at the Wisden Cricket Awards at lord’s in 2002. The former right-handed batsman, who had the distinction of playing for teams like Maharaja of Patalia’s XI, Southern Punjab and Haryana between 1953 and 1973, also established and successfully ran a cricket academy in Chandigarh.

After hearing news of his demise, Yuvraj Singh tweeted, “Really sad to know about the death of DP Azad sir, coach of so many great cricketers from northern India. RIP Azad sir.” Azad had also remained a prominent personality in Chandigarh. He also remained president of Chandigarh Gold Club for some time.