An Ode to the King of Tunbridge Wells

By Raj Narayan

Twenty-five years ago to this date, Tunbridge Wells was just

another small town where Londoners used to drive over
weekends to get away from the madding crowds.

This scenic town in the west of Kent in England, which was

known for its spas in the Georgian era about 300 years ago, had
lost its popularity following destinations that offered the sun and
sea aplenty. The world had pretty much forgotten the glory of
the town in the twentieth century.

However, all that changed one sunny afternoon on June 18,

1983 and today Tunbridge Wells is part of Indian cricketing
folklore and the hero of the day was none other than India’s
greatest all rounder Kapil Dev Nikhanj.

Though Indians created cricketing history a week later by

defeating the West Indies to win its first World Cup, the road to
glory probably began from this sleepy town when un-fancied
Zimbabwe had reduced India to 9 for four on a seaming track
and looked all set to re-state their giant-killer tag, having
humbled Australia earlier.

In walked Indian captain Kapil Dev and what followed was

history. He scored 175 of India’s 266 runs in 60 overs, with the
next best contributor to the total being our Number 10 batsman
and wicket keeper Syed Kirmani who scored 24 unbeaten runs.

For the statistically inclined, Kapil reached 175 runs off just 138
deliveries that gave him a T-20 type strike rate of 127 runs per
100 balls. He smashed 16 boundaries and six sixes in that
innings where none of the team’s major batsmen managed to
post double figures.

The handful of spectators who came for the match saw the
Haryana Hurricane sharing three key partnerships. Kapil put on
60 runs with Roger Binny (22), 62 runs with Madan Lal (17) and
a whopping unbeaten 126 runs with Kirmani.

The match, which was all but lost when India slumped to 17 for
5 and 78 for 7, was turned on its head by one man’s never-say-
die attitude. Syed Kirmani was quoted as saying that Kapil just
told his batting partners to keep it simple. “Just keep the
straight ones out and give me the strike is all he said to us,”
recalls Binny.

India eventually won the match by 31 runs with Kapil, Binny

and Madan Lal accounting for six wickets between them with
Balwinder Sandhu and Jimmy Amarnath taking one each with
two run-outs.

Indian cricket had truly arrived on the world scene and Kapil’s
Devils were all set to rewrite the history books from that fateful
day. Of course, cricket fans back home never got to watch the
match, either live or a recording, as the BBC in its wisdom had
decided to leave out this match from its coverage because they
were short of staff due to a strike.

The world may have missed watching history in the making, but
there is no doubt that every citizen of Tunbridge Wells considers
Kapil Dev as their Knight in Shining Armour, who came, who
saw and who conquered!

(Source: India Syndicate)