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Kapil Dev, ace of clubs

A clash between Kapil Dev and Dean Jones. Between one of the best exponents of seam and swing bowling, and one of the most devastating batsmen in contemporary history.

It's enough to make any cricket afficionado get the glitter in his eye -- only, this time round, the titans were clashing on a golf course.

The pair arrived at the Royal Palms golf course, at the Aarey Colony, in the Mumbai suburb of Goregaon, this Sunday for what was billed as the 'Clash of the Champions', a celebrity golf gourmanet being presented by the Royal Palms Golf Club and Tata Safari.

Besides Dev and Jones, the likes of Gundappa Vishwanath, Roger Binny, Syed Kirmani, Ashok Mankad, Karsan Ghavri and Yajuvendra Singh were found swinging a nifty club.

Rubbing shoulders with the former cricketing stars were CEOs of big-name companies, as also representatives of leading Mumbai clubs.

Kapil increasingly is as much at home on a golf course as he is on a cricket field, and strode onto the field with that air of authority that marks out the great sportsman from the merely good.

Sitting there, watching him take a pinch of turf, raise it high and then let go, in order to judge the direction of the breeze, brought back memories of how he would perform a similar test, just before starting his opening over in a Test.

Dean Jones, another larger than life character, was accompanied by his wife and, after a couple of practise swings, off he went in the golf-cart, to strut his stuff on the green.

As played, the tournament was an 18-hole affair pitting Jones' team against the one led by Kapil. And when the card was finally in, the Jones team had won, by 19 points to 7.5.

Kapil Dev, however, walked away with the player of the tournament award, pipping Jones to the post.

Amir Nensey, chairman and managing director of Royal Palms, sweetened the kitty still further by announcing honorary membership to all the participating cricketers.