Catching up on movie 83 brought back memories, tons of them. Childhood highlight reels flashed in front of my eyes and when you have childhood memories, cricket does play a big part in the growing up years. Yes, the things are a bit different now. There are options galore but during my formative years, cricket and Amitabh Bachchan movies was our favorite pastime. For the lack of being called old and a fossil, I was born in an era where there were no color TV’s (actually black and white TV’s came late as well), apple was a fruit that we ate, there were social visits but not social media. There were highways (in India, there were not that many of those either) but Information Superhighway hadn’t been born yet. Tablet was still something that you swallowed, and Phone was a black dial phone which was called landline and not everyone had that either. We read actual books (ones that are printed) and played outside. Video games at best during my later years were “imported” and that too couple of famous ones.
I took to watching cricket from an early age and mind you, I forgot to mention, we listened to the radio commentary (yes that was a popular thing). My first visit to meet the who’s who of cricket was in 1976 when the Indian cricketer Anshuman Gaekwad who was my aunt’s close friend had come home (he wanted home food as he wasn’t well) and then in turn invited me to visit the Taj hotel in Mumbai where the Indian team was put up and had my first exposure to the glitterati. But that is for another day.
In 1978, India went to Pakistan after a gap of decade plus and the Indian contingent included a greenhorn Kapil Dev – fast bowler from India (those days, men like Sunil Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath who batted in top order and took the new ball only with an intent of getting the shine off) before the famed spin quartet took over till it was the next innings and again, the two guys were called onto inaugurate the bowling (fine, I will call it roll the arm over). 19-year-old Kapil was an allrounder and a fast-bowling one. How difficult it was to be a fast bowler in those days was demonstrated by a famous Kapil story that when he came to Bombay for a camp in 1975 and asked for two extra “rotis” from two he was given, he was told off and when he said I am a fast bowler I need more, he was laughed at by saying there are no fast bowlers in India. Pakistan series was the first series that was televised which I remember watching.
Kapil Dev made his debut in Faisalabad, interestingly another legend Sunil Gavaskar got his only test wicket in that test of Zaheer Abbas as if to say, Kapil is here now and I am no longer needed to de-shine the cherry. From that test onwards to now, India has not had a top order batter come forward solely with an intent of opening the bowling to make way for the spinners. If Indian team has a different look now and have even played tests without a single spinner (that was a taboo in the earlier days) then Kapil Dev needs some thank you cards being sent to him.
Kapil Dev, the youngest son of a timber merchant from Chandigarh arrived on the scene and was an extremely gifted and amongst the most athletic cricketers ever on the Indian subcontinent. He was truly gifted and multi-talented as he could get into any side on his batting or bowling. His fielding and catching was the cherry on the top and as were found later, his leadership skills. Kapil brought out the earthy Indian lad and personified the grit and determination. He was one of the earliest by products of second tier city cricket. He was a boy who was gifted in cricket but could not have made even elementary school debate teams as articulation wasn’t his wont.
Kapil had number of memorable performances with bat and ball and even on the field, had the best catch to pocket the world cup which he won for India, be it his superlative innings of 175 not out against the minnows Zimbabwe, be it his five-wicket spell against Aussies while being sick in MCG, his 8 hundreds though he never took his batting seriously, his 4 sizes off 4 balls against Eddie Hemmings to save the follow-on, his yorker to Qasim Umar, his partnership with Dilip Vengsarkar when they both put on 100 odd runs in World Championship of Cricket which included 4 fours in an over of Richard Hadlee, his always great starts with ball in both red and white ball versions and the list could go on and on. Kapil was the highest wicket taker in test cricket before Courtney Walsh took over atop the podium.
Kapil was an all-rounder par excellence and as we have top batsmen in number of teams now, there were top all rounders of that era – Kapil, Imran, Botham and Hadlee formed the upper echelon of the all-rounders. Others were brilliant in one category for instance, Hadlee was the best bowler, Botham/Imran a better batsman but what made Kapil special was his skills in batting, bowling and fielding. Imran was good maybe even better as a bowler or batsman, but his fielding skills were borderline liability. Botham and Hadlee were never made captains of their teams so obviously on the leadership quotient, Kapil had a better billing.
Kapil Dev was an awesome leader of men. He was a believer and motivator who was largely responsible for India winning its first hardware. Intrinsically, man had an overflow of positive genes and exuded confidence like no other seen before his time. He has been the resilient man who helped put India on the pedestal where no one had ever been. Kapil acquired plethora of records – both Indian cricket records and World records during his tenure. Kapil famously led the fightback during the world cup finals and again in 1985 against arch-rivals Pakistan when they were bundled out for paltry 125 and inspired his team to bundle out Pakistan for 87. Both these were the times when he marshalled his troops who were down but not out and he motivated them by saying yes, we have a low score, but we have got that score, but the opponents need to get that and both times he led from the front and extracted inspirational performances from his boys. It was his words of wisdom that inspired the fight that his team put up and propelled triumphant. I have already talked about in my 83 review that Kapil was one of the main reasons that India laid his hands on the trophy and the folklore suggests he was the only true believer in the team and had traveled to UK to fight and not just stopover.
Kapil’s fitness was a case study that he only missed one test match in his entire tenure and that was because he was controversially dropped and that too in an era where the sophisticated measures were not available, and the teams had a manager, physio and travel guy all rolled into one as depicted by P.R. Man Singh during the 83-world cup. There was an iconic batting shot which bore his signature Natraj shot, and he thrived while displaying. One look back at his skills repertoire and you can only wonder how people could have had their jaws dropped if he was born few years later to see his gamut being plied in T20. Most of his 1983 team would have been ideal for IPL but none would have bigger than the man himself.
Kapil was rightly voted India’s cricketer of the millennium and how his exploits have influenced generations and most importantly, put India on the global cricket map like no one else. Team India and generations of cricketers have this man to thank that today cricket is a profession and that too a respected one in the country torn between cricket and Bollywood as careers not involving academics. Kapil was the first cricketer from India to score a hundred and take a fifer in ODI cricket and still has the best innings bowling figures of a test captain. He is still the only cricketer to have achieved the double of 5000 runs and 400 wickets.
Cricketers and leaders like Kapil are born once in a generation and what better way to end this than modifying the phrase that he made famous and will say Kapil Dev da jawaab nahi.
Happy Birthday Legend and Thank You for the Memories as you complete 63 years.
