Kapil da jawab nahin. Review on Kapil Dev

Kapil Dev was the only reason for me to watch cricket when I was a kid.

His enthusiasm and energy on the field seemed to be infectious.

Born in a timber merchant's family, Kapil did not have cricket in his lineage at all. At the age of 13, Kapil played his first game as part of an inter-sector team in Chandigarh and bowled all the team members with his performance on the ground.

Kapil made his first debut in the October of 1978 in Faisalabad vs Pakistan. And played the game until the March of 1994. During his tenure he also captained India.

In fact India won its only World Cup in 1983 during the captaincy of Kapil Dev. He scored a brilliant 175 runs and also took five wickets.

During his stint, he played a 131 test matches, 225 one-day internationals.

Kapil also holds the record for taking the maximum number of wickets (434). Also he was the youngest player to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets, a feat he repeated at 2,000 and 200.

In short, he has broken records and achieved accolades for being a good sportsperson.

The best thing I liked about Kapil was the fact that he would never take it easy on the field. He would either hit fours and sixes or get bold instead of hitting ones and twos. In a way he always added excitement to the game for better or worse. For instance, in a match against England in 1990, India required 24 runs of four balls. And Kapil actually hit four sixes in four balls leading the team to win.

The fact that he was one of the accused in the match-fixing scheme was quite sad.

And Kapil crying on national television to prove that he was innocent was something only a sensitive man like him could have done. Thankfully he has been cleared of the charges now.

And for all those Kapil fans, there would soon be a hindi feature film made on the hero, not necessarily starring him. But it is still something to look forward to.