India celebrating birthday of a man who conquered Lord’s ground
KS Diwan/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
One of cricket’s greatest all-rounder’s who led the Indian team to a historic World Cup triumph in 1983 and spearheaded the country’s pace attack for over 15 years, Kapil Dev Ram Lal Nikhanj , popularly known as Kapil Dev was born in Chandigarh on January 6, 1959. His parents Ram Lal Nikhanj and Raj Kumari were migrated from Pakistan.
His mother was born in Pakpattan, in the town of the Sufi saint Baba Farid. His father was from Dipalpur. They lived in Shah Yakka which is now in Okara district Pakistan. His four sisters were born there before partition and his two brothers in Fazilka, where they moved after partition. His father spent his early life after the partition in Fazilka. They moved to the capital city Chandigarh. Dev was a student at D.A.V. School and joined Desh Prem Azad in 1971.
He married Romi Bhatia in 1980 and had a daughter, Amiya Dev, on 16 January 1996
Dev captained the Indian cricket team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. The final of the 1983 Prudential Cup was played between India and West Indies at Lord’s on 25 June 1983.India playing their first finals defeated the West Indies, who were playing their third consecutive World Cup final to claim the title. It was the first World cup win for India.
Dev’s 175 runs off 138 balls, an innings that included 16 boundaries and 6 sixes against Zimbabwe in 1983 World Cup figures in the Top 10 ODI Batting Performances at No. 4. India won the match by 31 runs. It’s said that after this match, Dev booked a Mercedes for himself as a reward
He was India’s national cricket coach between October 1999 and August 2000. He retired in 1994, holding the world record for the greatest number of wickets taken in Test cricket, a record subsequently broken by Courtney Walsh in 2000. At the time, he was also India’s highest wicket taker in both major forms of cricket, Tests and ODIs. He is the first player to take 200 ODI wickets. He is the only player in the history of cricket to have taken more than 400 wickets (434 wickets) and scored more than 5000 runs in Tests, making him one of the greatest all-rounders to have played the game.
He was named by Wisden as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002.
Bollywood Director Kabir Khan is making a biopic on Kapil Dev. The film features Ranveer Singh as Dev and Produced by Anurag Kashyap.
(With inputs from Wikipedia)
