The greatest ODI innings the world never saw...
The Nevill Ground in Tunbridge Wells is a small, picturesque ground in the Kent County Cricket Club. It is 50 km away from London and has a seating capacity of only 4500 people.
It has hosted only one One Day International (ODI) cricket match ever - on 18th June, 1983, exactly 37 years and one day ago, between two minnows of world cricket - India and Zimbabwe, in the third ever Prudential World Cup.
On that day, on this ground, a human being conjured a miracle. But very few people witnessed it. Because BBC did not broadcast it. The below is probably the only surviving publicly available record of it.
This voice belongs to Bob Nixon, a Zimbabwean dentist-commentator who worked for BBC Radio during the 1983 world cup. Below is a transcript of what he says.
Now, why did BBC not broadcast it? Why do we only have some 30-second clip of BBC Radio as evidence of the miracle? There's a little bit of a mystery there too.
The popular view is that BBC was on strike that day. But that's not true. In reality, there were four matches scheduled that day:
West Indies vs Australia; England vs Pakisthan;
India vs Zimbabwe; Sri Lanka vs New Zealand.
And BBC had only two channels - BBC 1 and BBC 2. Naturally, they chose to broadcast the first two matches. I don't blame them.
I don't blame them because how were they to know that Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj would choose that day to write a piece of history.
Kapil Dev, the 24 year old, inexperienced Indian captain, won the toss against spirited newcomers Zimbabwe, who had beaten Australia just a few days back, and elected to bat first. Then he went to take a shower. Halfway through his shower, somebody called out for him saying India were 3 down. By the time he rushed out of the shower, India were 4 down! He walked to the ground, probably still not completely dry, next in at No. 6. Soon, another wicket fell. India were 17 for 5.
Zimbabwean opening bowlers, Peter Rawson and Kevin Curran, were wrecking havoc on the Indian batting. By the way, Kevin Curran is the father of current English cricketers, Tom Curran and Sam Curran.
Kapil Dev, along with Roger Binny, Madan Lal and Syed Kirmani took India from 17/5 to 266/8. He hit 175 not out! 16 fours and 6 sixes, an exact century in boundaries!!
One of the bowlers Kapil was harsh on was one Mr. Duncan Fletcher, who went on to coach the Indian National side from 2011-15. Anyways, who cares!
When Kapil hit 172, he crossed the then highest ODI total of 171 by Glen Turner of New Zealand. An year later, another superman, Sir Vivian Richards hits 189 not out against England under similar circumstances and breaks Kapil's record. But Kapil's 175 remained the highest score in World Cups for a long long time, until Gary Kirsten scores 188 not out vs UAE in 1996. The current world record in World Cups is with Martin Guptill for his 237 not out vs West Indies and with Rohit Sharma for his 264 vs SL for all matches.
Two very interesting incidents on the side:
1. A guy called Jeffery Richards bought a house outside Tunbridge Wells ground after the 18th June match. The previous owner, while selling his house, had put a card - "Kapil's six hit my roof." Every summer, a few Indians would come, visit the ground and a few would drift towards the house "that got hit by Kapil's six!"
2. One man had brought a video camera with him to the ground and shot the match. Years later, Kapil Dev tracked him down and apparently paid an undisclosed, hefty amount for the video. Knowing Kapil, I am sure he would have been generous with his offer.
Whatever, I still remember the pride I felt as a kid everytime Kapil Dev would walk in to bat, his record would flash on the TV screen and against H.S (Highest Score) would be 175*, the commentator would say - the highest ODI score by a batsman in World Cups!
Sunil Gavaskar says it best...
