ICC Greatest Team controversy: Sobers and Kapil, true folk heroes

Perhaps I might be dredging up a bit of a yesterday’s issue. There was the ‘Greatest Team Ever’ or some such exercise carried out by the ICC a while back. General populace was asked to vote on who they thought deserved to be in that team. Now, selecting an ‘All Time Great’ team is a completely personal and enchantingly delightful pastime. Every true sports lover has selected dream teams, most often while sitting through mind numbing college lectures or dreary office meetings. And so making an essentially individual fantasy an official pursuit will never achieve its stated objective, especially when ICC knows that the demographic was so totally skewed in the favor of subcontinent. The intention was to commemorate the 2000^th test match by indulging the fans a little and making them feel wanted. Noble but unnecessary. The result was quite a bit of debate and several hurt egos.

The biggest contention was around two names, both from India. The first was Virender Sehwag’s as the opener and the second, perhaps a bit more vociferously, of Kapil Dev. Quite simply because there are two names that are always penciled in when creating an ‘all time team’ by every non-Indian (or every non-Asian) – Sir Don Bradman and Sir Gary Sobers. While there are multiple slots for a batsman, there is generally only one for an all-rounder. So it was a sacrilegious, as many alleged that a slot so rightfully Sobers’ was usurped by Kapil Dev. We would understand if it were Imran Khan or Ian Botham, many said. But Kapil Dev? You got to be kidding us! To this I have a fan’s ‘flight of belief’ for the first issue here – that of Kapil being in the team. And I have a very solid grouse against the second issue – him being considered inferior to others.

When Kapil made his debut, India was a sum-total of ridiculous clichés to the western world. We were a country of snake charmers, sadhus, mystics, rope tricks and Delhi Bellies. The film makers of that era often pandered to these western sensibilities towards India. We were perhaps happy to know that the Westerners even thought about us, even if it was in the most demeaning way possible. If you see the not so grainy Technicolor images of Hollywood movies of that era (most notably the James Bond caper ‘Octopussy’) you will see what I mean here. In cricket, its equivalent was ‘a country of mysterious spinners’. The cricket administration perhaps taking the cue from the film-makers, never encouraged anybody to bowl fast, lest we challenged the cherished perception of ‘land of tweakers’. The pitches were made to crumble after lunch on the first day and on more than a few occasions, Sunil Gavaskar and Eknath Solkar were asked to take the shine off the ball on the first day of a test match. If ever, in the history of sports, there has been the equivalent of a messiah, it has to be Kapil. Quite simply because like all messiah’s he made people dream a new dream – that of opposition teams worried about an Indian fast bowler. And he realized that dream spectacularly.

Kapil Dev

Here was a man, a young, lithe athlete, who had a run-up of more than the proverbial few steps of a spinner. Perhaps for the first time, the opposition batsmen saw the Indian wicket-keeper standing way back. I wonder how many people looked at the scenes unfolding before them and thought this was all a show. No way can this man bowl fast. He would trundle a few overs of pretentious fast bowling (not unlike Madan Lal) and surrender the ball to Bedi and Chandra to start wheeling away. How wrong they were! Because Kapil was fast. And before some people start uttering the names like Lillee, Thomson, Holding, Roberts, I must say, he never was lightening fast, but if you asked batsmen of that era, especially between 1979 and 1982, they would nod their heads vigorously – he was fast. For Indians he was much more than that. He was the miracle they had been waiting for. The sight of an English batsman hurrying to get his bat out of the way of a Kapil outswinger was eye rubbing-ly astonishing.

In many ways, Kapil channeled the spirit of Sobers. The great Barbadian walked into the West Indies team of sixties like a godsend. Till then they were derogatively called the ‘calypso crciketers’, a term I find condescendingly indulgent. West Indies were supposed to be a bunch of charming men who would bat brilliantly for short durations, bowl a few fast overs and lose charmingly. Sobers showed the world that they could not only bat like a dream, they could bat like that for a long time too, and they could win. The Bajans of the Windies embraced Gary like they had no one else, and quite rightfully, Sobers transcended from being just a great cricketer to become a folk hero. And if you were to just forget the last two years of Kapil, he was, and will be Indian cricket’s and even Indian sport’s greatest folk hero. Sunil Gavaskar will be remembered as the quintessential khadoos Mumbai batsman who never gave his wicket away and became a beacon of hope for the middleclass bourgeois majority of India who believed in the principles of conservation and Spartan living. Sachin Tendulkar added controlled aggression to Gavaskar’s values and became the most revered cricketer ever. However, nobody has managed to become a folk hero like Gary Sobers and Kapil Dev. And before my English friends almost correctly want to add Ian Botham’s name to that list, I must say there is a big difference – Botham bowled seam-up, something several Englishmen have been doing very well before and have done so after him. There is no denying that he did it with great sense of drama and skill, but it wasn’t a miracle. Not like Sobers or Kapil. Imran Khan was Britain educated, was fortunate to get trained in England, and even living in upscale British salons (legend has it that he visited Pakistan when they were playing international matches). He is the greatest cricketer Pakistan has ever produced, but the title of the Pakistani folk hero goes to Javed Miandad.

While we are on the same topic, let’s dispense with the nonsense that Kapil was inferior to other all rounders of his era (although I do wish Kapil had retired a couple of years earlier, before we faced the ignominy of watching Phil Simmons hammering him for sixes). While bowling Kapil averaged 25 against Australia and West Indies, two strongest teams of his time. It compares favorably with Imran (25 against Australia and 22 against Windies) and is far superior to Botham’s (28 against Australia and a whopping 35 against Windies). And as a batsman Kapil averaged 26 against Australia, 31 against West Indies and 42 against England. Imran had 37 against Australia, 35 against England and 27 against West Indies. Botham loses out spectacularly on one front – his batting record against West Indies. He averaged a measly 21 against West Indies with no centuries. Does it ‘figure’ enough?

I feel, Sobers’ slot in the ‘All Time Greatest’ list is reserved for the champion of the masses, the folk hero who came out of nowhere, was completely indigenous, lived on for a long time and became a legend for the sheer pleasure of watching him ply his art. And if ever there was a man who could be considered in the same league, it has to be Kapil Dev.