Kapil Dev is widely regarded to be one of the best all-rounders to ever have played cricket and was named as Wisden's 'Indian Cricketer-of-the-Century'. He won the World Cup for India in 1983 against the marauding West Indians. This right-handed bowler was famous for his outswinger and perhaps one of the very few to have mastered it. He has some remarkable achievements with both the bat and ball. The most notable achievement of his career was to break Sir Richard Hadlee's Test wicket record. Kapil still counts among the few in the history of the game to have captured more than 400 wickets though his record has been overtaken.

He made his One-day debut in 1978 versus Pakistan and then went on to play in the 1983 World Cup as captain of India. He made some very valuable contributions to the side and those came at very crucial times. A prime example of this was the match against Zimbabwe when India was tottering at 17 for five wickets.

Enter Kapil Dev and he smashed an unbeaten career best 175 and then returned to bowl a superb spell of 11 overs for only 32 runs and one wicket. Of course India won the match by 31 runs. Another similar performance, this time with the ball, which comes to mind is the match against Australia in 1983. Kapil Dev took five wickets for 43 runs off his 12 overs and then returned to top score for India with a valiant 40.

The West Indies team playing against India in the final had some of the most famous names including Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenide, Desmond Haynes, Vivian Richards, Michael Holding and Andy Robert. When Richards started playing in his usual hurricane fashion and threatened to take the match away from the Indians, Kapil's miracle catch running about 10 yards and taking it overhead turned the match around. His team was then nicknamed Kapil's 'Devils'.

Almost all the Indian cricket buffs remember Kapil. India has yet to find another all-rounder of his calibre, who can perform with a similar telling effect.

Compiled by Ramnath Bhat