Mr.Murali, this thread is precisely for the likes of you to write about these greats of the past. Please write at length...

I started following cricket only from India's tour of Australia 91-92. One of the earliest cricketing memories I have is of Kapil Dev picking up Mark Taylor lbw as his 400th wicket. Kapil reaching 5000 runs against England (I think in Chennai) - and Gavaskar commenting that if this man had concentrated on his batting he would have reached 10,000. And of course when he equalled and broke Hadlee's record against Srilanka at home.

One other inoccuous memory that is lodged is Kapil picking up the wicket of Jimmy Cook in the first ball of the first ever test series in SAfrica.

While I wouldn't claim to have seen Kapil at his best there is one memorable match in that series I would like to recall.

After managing to draw the first two tests we got beaten in the third test. After conceding a lead we go into the second innings around tea on Day 3. We are down to 31/6 !!!! Courtesy Alan Donald and Brett Schultz.

I heard the 31/6 on news and was shocked ! Checking the scorecard I see that we were 17/5 and then 31/6. The 6th wicket was Pravin Amre, the overrated hero of the previous test got out to a shot that was so grossly irresponsible given the scenario that even Sehwag would not play it.

From there Kapil took over. He built partnerships with the tail and took us to a respectable score of 215. Just look at his innings. 129 (180) 14X4 and 1X6.

It doesn't betray the kind of pressure he was in. And mind you Alan Donald was breathing fire. He picked up 7 wickets, including eventually Kapil , taking his match haul to 12 (which was his personal best for a long time).

We got trampled in the second innings and SA reached a well deserving victory. But that one innings by Kapil made the whole thing so memorable. Heroic, no other words for it. Prevented us from an innings defeat to a country which was just returning to Test match cricket and was - for all practical purposes a newbie.

There was no live telecast of those matches (DD used to telecast domestic tests live). Even the highlights would come in the next day night. Test matches used to have draw of stumps score-reports in the papers but you have to wait the whole day to watch the action on TV. It was worth the wait.

Everyone talks about Atheron duellin with Donald to save the day. When rewatching this innings on TV a few years back I see this is an equally good innings and Donald was attacking quite fiercely. But Kapil just battled it out without getting defensive. I think even that lone six was off Donald !! Kapil btw was aming the first who hit Donald - who was a sensation when he made his debut- for a six : that was in the world cup 92 match.

While I did not see his best, I could clearly see why my older cousins and uncles held Kapil in such high esteem.