Dancing with the Dev-il

When Kapil Dev retired, he was the world record holder for not only the most Test wickets, but also the most ODI wickets. At that point in time he was also the holder of the second highest score ever made in an ODI. As time goes by, his achievements get bypassed and forgotten, but the enduring memory of his remains that of him lifting the Prudential World Cup in 1983. Thank goodness for small mercies.

For a man who scored over 8,000 international runs, I always felt that he underachieved. I have seen only one other batsman (Sehwag) as unaffected by the quality of the bowling, the state of the match, or the vagaries of personal form. Such was the aura he had when he came to bat.

Gideon Haig, in his inimitable fashion, salutes the legend, now being shunned by the BCCI.

He had the liveliest and least imitable action of all, a skipping, bounding run of gathering energy, and a delivery stride perfectly side-on but exploding at all angles, wrists uncoiling, arms elasticising, eyes afire. Which was part of his significance. No fast bowlers in India? Kapil could have hailed from no other country.

All that stood in the way of Kapil's bowling was his batting, full of generous arcs and fearful cleaves, signed with an exuberant pull shot that featured a chorus-line kick from his crossed front leg.

By the way, my favorite stat concering Kapil is that of the 434 wickets he took in his Test career, 217 were at home and 217 were abroad.