Kapil Dev and Majid Khan in 1983

[Lurker]

A beautiful piece of write up by Ayaz Memon about his favorite moment of cricket.

The stylish Pakistani, making a comeback, could barely put bat to ball as Kapil's late outswingers had him groping at each delivery. It was staggering to see a maestro who had earned renown for his batting against the new ball struggle so badly. Looked at another way, it showed how brilliant Kapil was that morning.

http://www.cricinfo.com/page2/content/story/438740.html Majid Khan was a fascinatingly cavalier batsman of his time and was respected around the world for his fearless stints against fast bowlers. He was specially renowned for his ability to play good on bad pitches with absolutely little footwork. Sehwag would be the modern day batsman who would resemble him closely although Sehwag is obviously lot more consistent performer. Majid's strokelplay had won him many admirers in India and even Kapil Dev was a fan. On his first trip to Pakistan Kapil played against Majid Khan and was absolutely shocked when Majid Khan and other Pakistanis abused him. Kapil paid back in choicest abuse himself which prompted Pakistani skipper Mushtaq Mohammed to admit to Indian skipper Bedi that India now had a player who would take on Pakistanis in the abuse fest leaving Bedi smiling with a "Hun aayega mazaa". Later in the series Kapil got into Pakistani players skin so much that Sarfaraz Nawaz, arguably the most crazy of the lot, came to Kapil almost begging him not to sledge as it was Imran and not Sarfaraz who was sledging Kapil. There is a sense of tragic poetry in here that Kapil ended the career of one of his favorite cricketers. Memon captures it beautifully when he says it was heart wrenching to see Majid who was renowned for taking on fast bowlers struggle completely against kapil's outswinger before Kapil put him out of misery.....and his career. Sometimes one has to wonder what would happen to cricket literature the day when Ayaz Memons of this world put down their pen to rest. xxxx

[Guest Gunner]

Lurker, I read the piece on cricinfo and knew the background of Majid Khan to a great extent. I was thinking of posting the article here but you have already done it and summarised the whole thing quite beautifully. Cheers!!

[The Outsider]

Wonderful read! Kapil was a phenomenon during those years. He was really bowled into dust because of the lack of any decent support bowlers else he would have remained a top level bowler for much longer than he did. This performance reminds me of another one man job he did against the West Indies at Ahmedabad : http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63352.html Notice in the second innings he bowled unchanged for 30.3 overs - that's something for a fast bowler to pull off and impossible to think any modern day fast bowler can pull it off. It was his career best performance of 9/83, but the West Indian quicks were just too much to handle on an underprepared wicket.

[Gambit]

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing. Majid supposed to be one of the best performers against the WIPQ. Reason for this -

Majid's agony was finally ended when he edged Kapil to Syed Kirmani, failing to score. Majid never played for Pakistan again, and the story goes that he and Imran Khan have not spoken since.

seems to be this -

His career ended on a sad note when his cousin Imran Khan was forced to drop him, which soured their relationship.

[dial_100]

Very nice read. Thanks lurk... Proff...I disstinctively remember that entire series against WI.... Gavaskar's double...It was very weak batting side we had back then. Sleep catching was so awesome site man... Every game you would see about dozen or so catches in the sleep cordon alone...I have seen few games where 4 sleeps and 2 gullys and point and cover field... now a days, batting has so improved that no one has that kind of field any more...that cricket was real craze.

[Sachinism]

Wonderful read! Kapil was a phenomenon during those years. He was really bowled into dust because of the lack of any decent support bowlers else he would have remained a top level bowler for much longer than he did. This performance reminds me of another one man job he did against the West Indies at Ahmedabad : http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63352.html Notice in the second innings he bowled unchanged for 30.3 overs - that's something for a fast bowler to pull off and impossible to think any modern day fast bowler can pull it off. It was his career best performance of 9/83, but the West Indian quicks were just too much to handle on an underprepared wicket.

:omg:

[Lurker]

Notice in the second innings he bowled unchanged for 30.3 overs - that's something for a fast bowler to pull off and impossible to think any modern day fast bowler can pull it off. It was his career best performance of 9/83' date= but the West Indian quicks were just too much to handle on an underprepared wicket.

Every game you would see about dozen or so catches in the sleep cordon alone...I have seen few games where 4 sleeps and 2 gullys and point and cover field

I suspect you are talking of West Indies and not India since no point in putting 4 slips for Balwinder Singh Sandhu really. Seriously though yes that image is vivid in my mind as well. West Indies also had quality players in this position - Lloyd, Richards, Gomes and Greenidge in slips and Roger Harper in cover or gully. No wonder catches were rarely dropped. I dont know if its sheer memory failing but I think gully/slips were lot deeper those days. Not sure if this had to do more with West Indies bowlers having extra yard of pace. xxx

Indeed Shwetabh. That kind of performance is beyond numbers really. An argument oft heard is Kapil took so many wickets, and had many 8 wickets and 9 wickets performances, because he was the lone wolf in the team. But really how true is that? Which Indian fan expects Praveen Kumar to take 9 wickets on a pitch against Australia? Or Irfan Pathan? Zaheer Khan may do it but then again Zaheer is one of the better bowlers out there in the world today. Kapil would do this for 10 odd years..and he could score runs too.

[The Outsider]

Indeed Shwetabh. That kind of performance is beyond numbers really. An argument oft heard is Kapil took so many wickets, and had many 8 wickets and 9 wickets performances, because he was the lone wolf in the team. But really how true is that? Which Indian fan expects Praveen Kumar to take 9 wickets on a pitch against Australia? Or Irfan Pathan? Zaheer Khan may do it but then again Zaheer is one of the better bowlers out there in the world today. Kapil would do this for 10 odd years..and he could score runs too.

Kapil was amongst the best bowlers in the '79-'85 period and that he was so high up in the ICC rankings at the time of the WI pace quartet, Imran, Botham, Willis, and Hadlee speaks volumes. Too bad he had to bowl spells like the ones discussed in this thread so often - imagine how much it takes out from your body. No wonder his knee gave way after that and he was not able to replicate the same zip except for some sporadic series in the remainder of his career.

I suspect you are talking of West Indies and not India since no point in putting 4 slips for Balwinder Singh Sandhu really. Seriously though yes that image is vivid in my mind as well. West Indies also had quality players in this position - Lloyd, Richards, Gomes and Greenidge in slips and Roger Harper in cover or gully. No wonder catches were rarely dropped. I dont know if its sheer memory failing but I think gully/slips were lot deeper those days. Not sure if this had to do more with West Indies bowlers having extra yard of pace. xxx

What a fielder he was! If someone can get hold of footage of him standing in the gully against the WI attack, it will be well worth a watch. Not only was he agile, had an amazing reach and reflexes, he used to stand extremely close in the gully position given that he was fielding to some of the fastest bowlers in history. That aspect of his fielding never ceases to impress me and given his height was able to swoop down low remarkably quickly.

[MUMBAISKIPPER]

It seems that Majid Khan was a typical pakistani batsman..a minnow-basher

[Gambit]

So let's get this Indo-Pak 'ended career' list right. Kapil:bangbang: Majid Khan Akram:bangbang: Srikkanth Abbas:bangbang: Spin Trio(most of them on last legs anyway) Tendulkar:bangbang: Akram and Younis Sehwag:bangbang: Saqlain

[Guest Gunner]

Sehwag / SRT :bangbang: Akhtar

[Laaloo]

BCCI :bangbang: PCB

[coffee_rules]

Another notable in that series was - Imran Khan returned the favor and ended Gundappa Vishwanath's career too. He had to be dropped by his B-i-l Sunil, but I guess that didn't sour their relationship in this case.

[bunny]

So let's get this Indo-Pak 'ended career' list right. Kapil:bangbang: Majid Khan Akram:bangbang: Srikkanth Abbas:bangbang: Spin Trio(most of them on last legs anyway) Tendulkar:bangbang: Akram and Younis Sehwag:bangbang: Saqlain

How about Miandad:bangbang: Chetan Sharma?

[vvvslaxman]

Irfan Pathan caused two mini breaks in Afridi's career if i am right.

[coffee_rules]

Mofo Ended Ganguly's captaincy XweSgmpIDSo

[The Outsider]

Another notable in that series was - Imran Khan returned the favor and ended Gundappa Vishwanath's career too. He had to be dropped by his B-i-l Sunil, but I guess that didn't sour their relationship in this case.

It was also the first away series to be televised live, IIRC?

[The Outsider]

How about Miandad:bangbang: Chetan Sharma?

:fail: Chetan Sharma's most successful series was a year later in England.

[coffee_rules]

It was also the first away series to be televised live' date=' IIRC?[/quote'] Thought it was 1982 England series, or may be they were highlights. My most vivid memory is watching a 1983 Wimbledon match l (McEnroe v/s connors?) live.

[OriginalCopy]

sorry .. posted original msg in the wrong thread. Removed.