Greatest Captains
Kapil Dev
© COPYRIGHTS
This book is copyrighted content of the concerned author as well as Matrubharti.
Matrubharti has exclusive digital publishing rights of this book.
Any illegal copies in physical or digital format are strictly prohibited.
Matrubharti can challenge such illegal distribution / copies / usage in court.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Greatest Captains
Early Life & Start of Cricket Journey
Premier All rounder and Captain
The Magical 1983 chapter
Captaincy in Muddy Waters and Retirement
The second coming in Cricket, Controversies and Social presence
1-Greatest Captains
Kapil Dev
India’s famous son, Kapil Dev (Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj), fondly known as HARYANA HURRICANE was India’s best bowler all rounder, fondly remembered for leading the country to world cup triumph (1983)- the biggest thing to happen to Indian cricket. He became the first pace bowler who broke the jinx of Indian cricket is all about spinners, by imploding into pace bowling arena in 80s and gave a new direction. He was awarded “Padmabhusan” & “Padmashree” Civilian honours by Government of India for his outstanding achievements and contribution to the sport and social arena.
2 - Early Life & Start of Cricket Journey
Kapil Dev was born on January 6, 1959 in Chandigarh, Haryana India to father Ramlal Nikhanj (a building and timber contractor) and mother Rajkumari migrated from Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan) during the Partition of India. Kapil studied in DAV school and Desh Prem Azad in 1971. Early in his school days he was a right-arm pace bowler who developed skills in outswing bowling, a lethal mechanism, made him India’s best strike/pace bowler later on. Kapil was a regular visitor to the inter-sector cricket matches in Chandigarh, It happened so that one Sunday the Sector 16 team fell short of one player, Kapil, as usual, was there to watch the match and was taken in as a replacement. The sector 16 cricket team had 3 players who had played Ranji Trophy cricket for Haryana. They were impressed by the young boy's attitude and talent and Kapil became a regular member of the side.
He made his domestic debut for Haryana in 1975 against Punjab and impressed with 6/93 innings haul helping to secure victory for Haryana. However he finished that season with only 12 wickets in 3 matches. As he progressed as bowler in first class matches, in 1977-78 took first 10 wickets haul, a feat he would later achieved twice in Test Cricket. He represented Haryana in number of leagues like Irani Trophy, Duleep Trophy & Wills Trophy. Although he was very good with bat occasionally, he showed the batting prowess against Delhi by scoring 193 in 1979-80. Kapil Dev made his Test Cricket debut in Faisalabad, Pakistan 1978, a rather unimpressive one. Noticeably he bowled his heart out during that tour, with trademarked out-swingers that ruffled up Pakistani batsmen number of times. His aggressive batting approach saw him score India’s fastest Test half century in just 33 balls against Pakistan in third test match. In following series against West Indies he scored his maiden Test century 126 at Delhi and took 17 wickets in the series. Kapil picked up his first 5 wickets against England outside subcontinent. His ODI debut happened against Pakistan and performance remained lackluster including in 1979 world cup.
3 - Premier All rounder and Captain
Having ability to devastate with both bat and ball, Kapil Dev lit up a golden period in cricket history. He was a colossal figure during his 1980s prime period, blessed with artistic and devilish out-swing, bounce and an eye for spectacular. In a decade of the all-rounders like England’s Ian Botham, Pakistan’s Imran Khan and New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee, this young Chandigarh lad had the knack to separate himself from the esteemed pack.
Kapil established himself as India’s best fast bowler when he took 5 wickets against Australia and ended the home series with 28 wickets (avg 22.32) & 212 runs while with the bat. Eventually he rose to fame in home test series against Pakistan in 1979-80 when he led India to 2 victories against visitors, once with the bat 69 at Wankhede stadium, Mumbai and the second time with bat and ball -10 wickets haul in the match- 84 runs in 98 balls with the bat at Chepauk, Chennai. He rates this all-round performance his career best. He achieved all round double of 100 wickets and 1000 runs in 25 matches, youngest Test player to do that. (Incidentally Ian Botham took just 21 matches to achieve the same feat) Kapil finished this series with 32 wickets (average 17.68) and 278 runs, two fifties included.
The tour of Australia in 1980–81 saw the real fighter attitude of Kapil Dev as India were 1–0 down and were defending a mere 143 runs and him being virtually ruled out with a groin injury. When Australia finished the fourth day at 18/3, Kapil willed himself to play the final day with pain-killing injections and removed the dangerous Australian middle order. Kapil won the match for India with the innings bowling performance of 16.4–4–28–5, a bowling performance that figures in his five best bowling performance. Kapil carried on showing his all-round performance against New Zealand, England and Pakistan. His heroics with batting, bowling and athletic fielding was good enough to be selected as captain of Team India in place of Sunil Gavaskar after the disastrous tour of Pakistan.
4 - The Magical 1983 chapter
Though, Kapil Dev started his innings as Captain against Sri Lanka in 1982-83 but full time role of captain only given against West Indies tour. Seemingly India only won just one ODI during that tour, but Kapil managed to instill fighting spirit in the team which proved vital in World Cup of 1983. Playing in English conditions was always a challenge for Team India and they started as expected with little to cheer about. In these tough times Kapil Dev played one of the all-time best knocks in ODI cricket in a must-win match against Zimbabwe, where he rescued India from a disastrous 17 for 5 with a stunning 175 off 138 balls. The knock gave India a momentum which they seized & the invincible catch in the final to dismiss Viv Richards to win the trophy for the first time, defeating the mighty West Indies at Lord's. Clearly Kapil Dev had upset Clive Lloyd's West Indies and he led from the front with 303 runs (Average: 60.6), 12 wickets (Average: 20.41) and 7 catches in 8 matches – a truly all-round performance.
In his own words about this triumph that he had scripted goes like this “My philosophy is simple. Play to win. Get your runs and wickets. Never stop trying. Hit the ball over the slips, over the ropes, runs on the board count” giving an insight into his simple but highly effective approach to the game.
5 - Captaincy in Muddy Waters and Retirement
Post World Cup, West Indies toured India and they whitewashed India in Tests and ODIs. During this series Dev achieved his best bowling performance at Motera, Ahmedabad claiming 9/83. But slump in Kapil's batting form saw Gavaskar return as captain for a brief period of time. However, he returned to led India for the title defense in the 1987 World Cup at home. India reached the semi-finals but lost unexpectedly to England. Kapil Dev took responsibility and never captained India again, although he continued to be India's frontline pacer. In final years he relished role as a front-line pace bowler and in batting transformed his style to a pinch hitter and savior, as an when required, especially in ODIs. Kapil Dev ended his Test career in 1994 with a record 434 wickets in 131 Test matches (a record that was broken in 2000 by Jamaica’s Courtney Walsh), including 23 five-wicket matches. In one-day internationals, he took 253 wickets over 225 games.
Dev’s captaincy period was on the whole a difficult as it was often mired with reports of differences with Gavaskar, as well as his own inconsistent form as a bowler. However, both men have since insisted that these reports were blown over the top at times. Above all the controversy, Kapil's performance was better when he was the Captain, than as a player underline that, he enjoyed and suited captaincy.
Career:
Test Debut: India Vs Pakistan 16th October 1978, Iqbal stadium, Pakistan
Last Test: India Vs New Zealand 19th March 1994, Seddon Park, New Zealand
ODI Debut: India Vs Pakistan 1st October 1978 Ayub National Stadium, Pakistan
Last ODI: India Vs West Indies 17th October 1994, Nahar Singh Stadium, India
6 - The second coming in Cricket, Controversies and Social presence
Post retirement, Kapil Dev was made national cricket team coach during 1999-2000. India fared badly on overseas tours under his tenure and white washed by Australia 0-3 and South Africa 0-2. To top all these adversities, sensational reports and allegations appeared of match fixing scandal from one of his team mates Manoj Prabhakar. These allegations led him to resign as a coach, later he appeared on television- a rare sight where world saw a man of his stature weeping tears, who gave his soul to the game of cricket. However he came unscathed from the match fixing scandal investigations. Subsequently he was awarded Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century ahead of the big names like Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar. Later he joined National Cricket Academy. In 2007, birth of T20 cricket saw him joining a rebel cricket league ICL floated by Zee TV an act that led Indian Cricket Board to snap all the ties with Kapil Dev. Although ICL did not last long and in 2012 Kapil Dev rejoined BCCI fold.
After retirement, Kapil is enjoying life (& keeping it low profile) with wife Romi Bhatia (married to her in 1980) and daughter named Amiya Dev. Kapil landed a role in movie called Iqbal and he made his presence felt in acting too. His latest business interests include Zicom Electronics, Chain of Captain’s Eleven restaurants and Kaptain’s Retreat Hotel in Chandigarh. He endorses few big brands such as Hero, Birla Sun life Insurance, Palmolive, Idea Cellular to name a few. Kapil Dev is also an honorary officer in Indian Territorial Army. After cricket, Dev is very much active in Golf, where he is the only Asian founding member of Laureus Foundation, others being Ian Botham, Viv Richards and Steve Waugh. He has written three autobiographical works, By God's Decree 1985 and Cricket my style 1987. The most recent autobiography, titled Straight from the Heart 2004. He has also pledged to donate his organs at an event organized by Delhi Urological Society on January 31, 2014 New Delhi.
Indian Cricket is still finding very tough to identify a cricketer/person who can successfully carry forward Kapil Dev’s legacy as a leader and bowling all rounder. What Indian cricket and so many players owe him is immeasurable. He was and is always a special cricketer, the role model, the man for a crisis. All of his efforts on the field & in the dressing room gives us a fair idea what Kapil Dev means to Indian cricket. His arrival on the scene convinced the world that India is capable of producing a genuine quick bowler. Like all great leaders he always walked the talk and led by example. These words in every context hold to be true for the swashbuckling, dynamic and inspirational human being like him- “KAPIL DA JAWAB NAHI”!
