Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj

[Lurker]

Sadiq Mohammed had reasons to be arrogant. The last time an Indian team played a Test match, their opening bowling was gentle medium pace of Mohinder Amarnath. Indeed since the days of Mohammed Nissar and Amar Singh not a tearaway had been seen donning Indian colours though players like Karsan Ghavri, Ramakant Desai had their moments. The Indian attack boasted of the magic and tricks of a Vinoo Mankad, a Subhas Gupte, a Bedi, a Prasanna..heck at the time there were spinners like Rajinder Goel & VV Kumar who could have made any other International side but India. But the cupboard when it came to pace bowling was as embarassingly bare as rich it was when it came to spin. The wily Pakistani opener must have been aware. That coupled with the fact that this match was played on Faislabad track, one of the deadest ever(a year later Australian team playing on the same ground would have all their 11 players bowl in 1 innings, including wicket-keeper Marsh who bowled 10 overs). In this setting Sadiq Mohammed walked to the middle wearing a cap and no helmet. Bowling to him was a firebrand debutant. His bowling approach started slowly, like the meandering of gentle water fountain at Rock Gardens in his hometown, before gathering speed to culminate in a leap that would lift his 6ft frame high in the air and make noted scribes like Christopher Martin Jenkins gasp, "What a magnificent leap". In his delivery stride his back was arched, his eyes were vertical behind his shoulders while his apparently boneless wrist seemed folded on to his forearm to generate that extra whip. Tearing in he fires... Whoooshh.. The ball sears past the amazed batsman, making him wonder how the hell did that ball go so fast on this track? He looks towards pavillion and signals for helmet. Quite correct judgement too because the next ball hits him right on the helmet, the sound resonating through an entire stadium. The keeper Syed Kirmani goes up with a "Once more" while Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar at slip smiled knowing now India had with them what they would be routinely be dished everywhere - tearaway pace bowling. There are great players, there are players with great record and then there are trailblazers. Kapil Dev Nikhanj was all the three. Has there been greater expectation from a player ever since his debut in test cricket? Bradman hardly walked to his first innings with a weight to change Aussie cricket, it took Sobers 16 plus Tests to score his first century, players like Warne/Tendulkar would take a good couple of years(if not more) to truly arrive at the centrestage, in case of players like Imran/Richard Haldee/Mcgrath/Waugh it took them even more time/tests. Kapil Dev was expected to not only deliver from day 1 but also to change Indian cricket for all times to come. If that is not strange, what is possibly stranger is that Kapil did not fail the expectation!! Look at it this way. Kapil made his debut at Faislabad in 1978-79. The first century partnership by opening batsmen came against him in 1981/82(Boycott and Gooch at Delhi). In between 35 tests had since passed and openers from around the world had failed to score a century. A complete contrast to the time when openers would lick their chops thinking of how to murder Indian opener bowlers. Do bear in mind that a majority of these Test matches would be played at the moribund Indian tracks, the kind that had made English seamer Harold Butler grimace and utter(after a particular spell at Brabourne), "I wish I would have instead been chosen to work on laying slippers for Burma Railways during World War". Within a year of making debut Kapil had smashed the world record of most wickets in one calendar year(74 wickets@ 22 in 17 tests) and had also racked up the fastest test double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets(in terms of time). When he made the double(1000 runs and 100 wickets) he was averaging 33 with bat and 26 with ball. India had won 5 and lost 3 tests in the time frame. But of course this was only a sign of things to come. Kapil would reach the fastest test double of 2000 runs and 200 wickets(in terms of time) in 1982/83 and within a year would change Indian, and world cricket, by leading India to victory at 1983 World Cup. By this time he had played International cricket for only 6 years(to make a comparison in his first 6 years Kapil's rival Imran Khan had played 15 tests had not yet scored 1000 runs in total and had taken 62 wickets@33). Kapil would end his career with 5000 plus runs and 434 wickets(highest at the time) in Tests and close to 4000 runs and 250 wickets in LOI. If those stats are not mighty impressive in themselves let it also be known that Kapil played for shortest time in International cricket amongst all four great all-rounders of 70/80's and none comes close in sheer weight of statistics. But it is not stats that defined Kapil Dev. It was how he played his game. A particular incident that suffice. In an International match against West Indies(this happened at a time when Windies were undoubted world champions) Kapil was bounced by Michael Holding. His response? A Natraj patented hook shot sending the ball over the square leg for a huge six. Then coming back to bowl and hitting Holding square on the helmet. If ever there was a cricket statement, almost like a gangster movie with the protagonist shoving a finger in your face with a "What are you gonna do now tough guy?". Indeed if the measure of the greatness of a player is how he performs against the best team of his time Kapil's record is perhaps the best of them all. 89 wickets@ 25 with career best 9/83 and 1079 runs@31 against West Indians. In fact Kapil reservd some of his best performances specially for World Champions. In a LOI game at Berbice he slaughtered 72 off 38 deliveries, then came back to take 2/33 as West Indies were beaten first time at home. His leadership in 1983 WC is now part of the folklore as is his spectacular catch of viv Richards that effectively put West Indies on the backfoot.Then when a wounded West Indies team toured India for redemeption Kapil Dev faught a lone battle, 29 wickets@18 better than the likes of Marshall, Holding, Roberts, Daniel, Davis. Even towards the fag end of his career he had one last hurrah left in him as he notched 18 wickets in 4 tests@21 in 1989. But if Kapil stood the test against West Indies gallantly he did the same against Australia, England, Pakistan you name it. Against Australia in 1980/81 he would take pain killers and bowl unchanged for 2 and a half hours!(Pathans, Agarkars, Nehras and Balajis please take note),take 5/28 as Australia were skittled for 83 - their lowest total against India, and lead India to a famous victory. In the famous Tie Test at Madras chasing Australia's 574 he walked in at 5/200 and went ballistic scoring 119 in an effort that David Boon would later say as "Basically he came out with no fear and decided everything must go". A few years later when India shall tour Australia Kapil took 25 wickets in 5 Tests @25.This included the famous spell at Melbourne where he dismissed Alan Border and Dean Jones within 3 deliveries. Dean Jones recalled later on how he went in to bat expecting a bit of swing with Kapil with bowling. "The first one started to swing early",he says, "it started to pitch outside but suddenly dipped in..landed around off and middle and went past my bat at off stump. I looked up at AB who was the runner and he looked at me with a - Where the eff did that come from?". "The next ball started to curve in and I pushed forward to minimize the swing, no help, it swung the other way and went between bat and pad...clean bowled". When ESPN selected its all-time Greatest 25 cricketers ever, David Boon would hand pick those three deliveries bowled by Kapil Dev as the best he had seen in Test cricket. Do remember this came in 1992 when Kapil was on his last leg. Against Pakistan Kapil would match fire with fire. In his own words, "the only time I abused on field was against Pakistan". In his debut series he was abused by Pakistani players quite a bit and when they came to bat Kapil followed with chaste Punjabi gaalis. So much so that Pakistani skipper conceded to Indian captain, Bishen Bedi, "Yeh accha larka mila hai aapko, hisaab chukta karna jaanta hai". Of course Kapil's exploits shown on cricket field too. In his second ever test he walloped a quickfire 59 with 2 six and 8 fours, the sixes coming off Imran leading Sarfaraz Nawaz to cuss "Saada tainu hamare sher nu chakka maar ditta?". The next time when Pakistan toured India Kapil took 32 wickets in 6 Test@17 and Pakistani skipper Asif Iqbal to say, "Kapil was the difference in between the two sides". When India toured Pakistan in 1982/83 and faced Imran Khan's blitze, Kapil plaughed a lone furrow with 24 wickets in 6 tests, a tally as good as the rest of the bowlers - Madan Lal, Sandhu, Doshi, Maninder, Shastri- put together. This included the superhuman effort at the Faisalabad where be bowled his heart out for 39 overs and finished with 220/7. In the 1985 Benson Hedges Series final he ensured Pakistan did not get to a good start and had 3 quick wickets, including the dismissal of Qasim Omar by the ball that Richard Benaud called "ball of the tournament". In the game in which Imran famously took 6/14 Kapil was the one who stopped the rot, smashed a quickfire 30, then came back and took 3/17. And it was Kapil again that made sure India started on that now famous 4-0 WC record against Pakistan. In 1992 he scored a quickfire 35 off 26 deliveries and then picked 2/30. Against England Kapil started with a slow start but then he arrived...and how! After a rather slow(by his standards) couple of series he ran away with MOS award in 1982. In the three match series Kapil scored 41 and 89 at Lords, 65 at Old Trafford and 97 at the Oval. A grand total of 292 runs off 237 deliveries! Yep 237 deliveries...and they say today's cricket is about brisk scoring! What was spectacular about those innings, as was true for most of his cricketing career really, was that all the runs came when India was in crisis. Indeed Sunil Gavaskar, a fellow player and at times bitter rival, admitted "My thought of Kapil going in was always that if India needed the runs Kapil would get it".In the first Test at Lords India were following on 305 runs behind and were in deep trouble at 252/6 when Kapil came in. Bob Willis had 4 wickets in 4 overs. As was his wont Kapil launched a counter strike making 89 in 55 with 13 fours and 3 sixes leading Wisden scribe to note "Kapil's shots sounded like a gunfire" and making legendary Gary Sobers mutter "Why doesnt Kapil have the fatest century record?"(at the time Kapil's 89 off 55 fell short of the world record by 11 runs and 12 deliveries). To round the proceedings Kapil would come back and knock back 3 quick wickets for 18 as England chased 55. Wisden picking Kapil as one of its 5 players of the year would say,"Kapil had enjoyed as glorious a session as any immortal ever". Be it his ability to swing at brisk pace, score runs at a breathtaking speed or field with greatest of panache, Kapil Dev would go down as the man who did not play the game by the rule layed down by opposition. He made his own rules and made opposition play according to them. In a game where Kapil was busy clubbing New Zealand attack like a club side, the Kiwi skipper Jeremy Coney took out his white handkerchief and waved in surrender. Now how many cricketers can say they made opposing captain do that? xxxxx

[King]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj I haven't read it but why not post this in your BLog Lurker? I will post this on the main page or in your BLog.

[MundaPakistani]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj Excellent write up! Kapil definitely changed Indian cricket for good, he was not only a great talent but also the fittest player ever come out any of the Asian teams.

[Chandan]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj I remember about 5 years back on C4, we used to have huge debate on Kapil with a Pakistani forummer (Salmaan it was, I suppose) calling Kapil a trundler and many of the Indians rushing to prove him wrong with all kinds of stats and so on!!! I loved those debates!

[MundaPakistani]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj

I remember about 5 years back on C4, we used to have huge debate on Kapil with a Pakistani forummer (Salmaan it was, I suppose) calling Kapil a trundler and many of the Indians rushing to prove him wrong with all kinds of stats and so on!!! I loved those debates!

Was it before my time on C4? i think i joined in 2003/04.

[Chandan]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj Yes. I think left C4 after WC 2003.

[Dhondy]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj Lurks, you write well, very well, but even by your rather high standards, that's the very best I have ever seen you write. In my own mind, there is a kind of personal Hall of Fame, and this magnificently written article goes straight in there. I saw Kapil in person, both on and off the field. He walked like a lion, and played like one. He had in abundance, what our current superstars can only aspire to- spunk. Thanks, Lurks.

[yoda]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj :wtg: :wtg: :wtg: to Lurker. to the man who changed Indian cricket.

[apocalypse]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj Great Article Lurker You touched every essence of Kapil's career :hmph:

[gs]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj Fantastic article!! :wtg:

[kumble_rocks]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj Lurker , you are the best man ! :wtg: In fact the match wherein you are talking about Sadiq Mohammed incident was broadcasted in DD back in those days. I watched the whole series in 1979. Kapil was a fast medium bowler who could bowl in the high 80's when he started his career. In fact , he used to bowl faster in the domestic circuit. But his pace tapered off quickly and and by 1983 , he become more of a medium pace bowler. But a great bowler nevertheless. But , as an Indian it pains me to say this , but kapil was completely outplayed by Imran in 1982-83 series played in Pakistan. If anything , both Imran and Botham were considered better allrounders than Kapil by 1983.

[kabira]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj >In his second ever test he walloped a quickfire 59 with 2 six and 8 fours, the sixes coming off Imran leading Sarfaraz Nawaz to cuss "Saada tainu hamare sher nu chakka maar ditta?". Kapil was sent in as night watchman to see off the overs and Bedi had instructed him to defend..But Paaji is Paaji...Needless to say, he was never again sent in as nightwatchman..

[Anakin]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj :wtg: :wtg:

[Dirty_South]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj Excellent :hmph:

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj -- Removed on request of the user --

[DesiChap]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj Great article Lurker :wtg: :wtg: :wtg: :wtg: . Kapil changed Indian cricket and was an enforcer. He had talent to be in the team as a specialised bat if he wanted to concentrate on his batting alone

[Lurker]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj Thanks all for your kind words. A special word of mention for Dhondy. Much appreciated mate. KR, arguing about the greatest all-rounder is in my opinion quite a futile job. They were all all-time greats and everyone would be mentioned as a candidate in all-time World XI, and certainly would be picked for their country all-time XI. Much like you I had the good fortune of watching them in full flight and if you ask me who was the best I shall answer that Hadlee and Imran were greats but frankly I wouldnt have missed anything had I had not seen them play. But Botham and Kapil...now these were two players that I would have sorely missed. Only a Botham could strike the immortal century at Headingley and beat Australia after following on. Only a Kapil could walk in at 17/5 and score a 175*. I dont mean to belittle Hadlee or Imran's achievement but I would say that Imran would perhaps trade all his runs for the scores that Botham put up and Hadlee inspite of his hard-hitting strokes would probably wish he had smot 4 consecutive sixes to avenge a follow-on. Botham and Kapil were the players who got my pulse racing. And of them I pick Kapil ahead. xxx

[kumble_rocks]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj

Thanks all for your kind words. A special word of mention for Dhondy. Much appreciated mate. KR, arguing about the greatest all-rounder is in my opinion quite a futile job. They were all all-time greats and everyone would be mentioned as a candidate in all-time World XI, and certainly would be picked for their country all-time XI. Much like you I had the good fortune of watching them in full flight and if you ask me who was the best I shall answer that Hadlee and Imran were greats but frankly I wouldnt have missed anything had I had not seen them play. But Botham and Kapil...now these were two players that I would have sorely missed. Only a Botham could strike the immortal century at Headingley and beat Australia after following on. Only a Kapil could walk in at 17/5 and score a 175*. I dont mean to belittle Hadlee or Imran's achievement but I would say that Imran would perhaps trade all his runs for the scores that Botham put up and Hadlee inspite of his hard-hitting strokes would probably wish he had smot 4 consecutive sixes to avenge a follow-on. Botham and Kapil were the players who got my pulse racing. And of them I pick Kapil ahead. *****

Lurker ,with all due respect , while I would agree that botham and kapil would get one's pulse racing , I feel it was only in the batting department . In fact , as a cricket fan , both these bowlers would not get my pulse racing the way Imran or Hadlee could. Between 1979 to 1983 , Imran khan was one of the fastest bowlers in the world. And the destructive nature of his bowling was clearly abundant when the famed Indian batting except Mohinder Amarnath had no clue how to play Imran in 1982/83 series. He took 40 wickets in that series at an astonishing average of 13.95 and thoroughly outplayed Kapil Dev in that series. He finished the careers of Indian greats like Vishy , Patil .The reason why I bring this up , because in your article , you mention about Kapil Dev's superhuman effort at the Faisalabad where be bowled his heart out for 39 overs and finished with 220/7. I watched this match , I can categorically state that this was a good performance not a great one considering the fact that Imran Khan took 11 wickets in that match and conceded 180 runs . In fact he earned man of the match for his brilliant bowling in that match which Pakistan won. Also, in your article , you mention that Kapil's rival Imran Khan had played 15 tests had not yet scored 1000 runs in total and had taken 62 wickets@33). It's only fair to mention that Imran Khan was injured for a long period time even though he debuted at 1971. In fact , by the time they completed their career's , Imran had far better stats. Their is no comparison in my opinion.

[Mandrake]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj [align=justify]Superbly constructed article on Kapil.It made me relive many of those glorious memories of the past.You could always count on Kapil to bail India out...however sometimes his style of play would want to make you tear your hair out-87 semi final against England and that catch to Gatting...even before the ball was bowled the world knew he would go for that shot!! I'm reminded of another incident told by Gavaskar in one of his books. In the Benson and Hedges tournament in 1985, India were in trouble against NZ in the semis when Kapil strode in. Hadlee bowled a well concealed slower ball which Kapil tried to hit out of the park but only succeeded in lobbing it to the fielder.A groan went thru the dressing room.Much to everyone's relief,the fielder dropped a sitter. You would expect any other batsman to show some caution but not Kapil. The very next ball was slaughtered for a boundary and Hadlee was virtually taken apart in the next few overs. Gavaskar writes that in the dressing room there was nervous laughter as someone quipped-"I told you,he plays like that" That to me summed up the maveric that was Kapil.[/align]

[Cricketics]

Re: Hall of Fame - Kapil Dev Nikhanj Good write up m8.. Kapil Dev, a Legend..