An Ode To The King Of Tunbridge Wells

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-saydie 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)