Kapil Dev: Legend who was no myth

This was around early 1977. I was all of 10. As I walked back to my home in Delhi from the school bus stop with a friend two years my senior — it was a good kilometre-long walk — we discussed cricket, specifically, India's paucity of pace bowlers. I thought, based on what I'd read in the paper, that Barun Burman and Pandurang Salgaokar were fast.

"No, no," my older friend patted me on my shoulder, almost as if chiding me for not keeping myself up to date. "Watch out for Kapil Dev.

Now, how did I miss this name? I had been following the sports pages of the Hindustan Times since India's 1974-75 home series against the West Indies. India had lost that series 2-3. All the pace that India could throw at the deadpan, was the strictly middling duo of Madan Lal and Karan Ghavri. On the other hand, the wily, tearaway Andy Roberts took 32 wickets in that series for the Caribbeans.

Even more fearsome was the Australian pair of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. A few months after India, the Windies toured Australia: the Lillee-Thomson humiliation of Clive Lloyd and his men left many broken jaws, bones and egos in their wake.

In 1976, India toured the Caribbean. It was a memorable series for two reasons – India's then world record winning chase of 406/4 in the second innings of the Trinidad Test and the emergence of Windies' all-pace formula for the next two decades — the fury unleashed by Michael Holding, Wayne Daniel and Vanburn Holder had India declaring at 97/5 in the second innings of the decider at Jamaica, with 3 of India's batsmen and 2 bowlers having been injured.

For any aware young follower of Indian cricket in the 1970s, this was the ultimate in abject humiliation — sure, we had the great spin quartet of the BS Chandrasekhar, BS Bedi, EAS Prasanna and S Venkataraghavan, but not one pace bowler who could give the opposition some tit for tat. It was almost as if India's cricket team, and, by extension, India, had been reduced to cowering weaklings.

This was the context of Kapil Dev. From the day he made his first-class debut in November 1975 as a 16-year-old — he took six wickets against Punjab to bowl them out for 63 in an innings – to his exploits with bat, ball and fielding in the next two seasons, each and every match of Kapil's was watched with great interest. There was no other non-Test cricketer that I and many of my friends followed in the press —live TV of cricket was limited only to domestic Tests – through the 1976-77 and 1978-79 seasons as much as Kapil Dev.

As if pre-ordained, the Test call-up came. A tour to Pakistan, no less. And, as if on cue, India's first live broadcast of a cricket match from foreign soil also coincided with the first Test at Faisalabad.

I must confess being quite underwhelmed at first. The young man, all of 19, looked keen but quite raw. But could he bowl fast? In his second over, a bouncer almost grazed Sadiq Mohammed's cap. Such pace coming from an Indian was so unexpected that it took some time for the batsman's helmet to arrive! "Very likely the fastest delivery from an Indian bowler since Independence," gushed Ramachandra Guha in his book Spin and Other Turns.

He didn't get many wickets in that series but his all-round ability was evidenced by the quick cameos as a batsman – he could bludgeon the bowl like nobody else in either team.

Many years later, Imran Khan said in a TV interview that as good as Kapil's bowling was, his batting too was top notch. "He could bat for an hour or so and take the match away," I remember words to that effect. The Windies learnt that in early 1979 during the Delhi Test in Kapil Dev's second series. His first Test century – 126 – came off just 124 balls.

Much has been written about Kapil Dev's World Cup triumph and his superlative performances — that 175 not out in a must-win game against Zimbabwe after India were 17/5 and that great running-back catch to dismiss Viv Richards in the final — but what many forget were the performances that would rank him among the greatest all-rounders of all time.

He took 434 wickets in 131 Tests and 17 years — slow by the standard of greats. But his first 235 wickets came in just six years, most of them on slow Indian wickets. He was the youngest to the 200 wickets – 2,000 runs double, beating the likes of Imran, Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee and even Garry Sobers. His career ODI strike rate of 95.07 was better than Viv Richards's 90.20, and way higher than Ian Botham's 79.10, Imran Khan's 72.65 and Richard Hadlee 75.50.

Judged even by cold statistics, the Haryana Hurricane could have walked into any team in the world and would have been a match winner with his batting, bowling and fielding against any team of any generation. Not surprising, therefore, was when he was voted India's Cricketer Of The 20th Century ahead of Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.

It's now 40 years since Kapil Dev took his first strides in international cricket. India have not had a cricketer of his ability, fight and dash since. We can be certain that 40 years later, he might still remain India's benchmark for all-round cricketing excellence.

(The author is a writer and brand guru)