Former India captain Kapil Dev has suffered a heart attack and has subsequently undergone angioplasty surgery on Thursday at a hospital in New Delhi.
The 1983 world cup winning skipper, who had been active in his role as a pundit during the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), was dealing with long-standing diabetes-related health issues.
The news of his illness broke out in Twitter when a journalist Teena Thaker tweeted about his condition.
Sadness has engulfed the social media feeds of cricket lovers ever since the Haryana Hurricane’s news came out. Wishes and prayers have poured in from a corners for his speedy recovery.
Kapil Dev, 61, is considered to be one of the greatest all-rounders of all time. He had played131 Tests, picking up 434 wickets and making 5248 runs. He also represented India in 225 ODIs, picking 253 wickets and scoring 3783 runs for India.
However, it’s his heroics in the 1983 World Cup which has made Kapil Dev an immortal in Indian cricket. The underdog team led by him– famously known as Kapil’s Devils – became source of inspiration to an entire generation of a third-world populace after they gave India their first ever cricket world cup.
However, such was the brilliance of the man that he never considered the Indian team of 83 underdog. India were not the underdogs who were overawed in the final and won the World Cup by a fluke, he had said.
“When you start playing cricket, you keep on moving in the same manner and you don’t really analyse it so much that yes we are going to play in the World Cup final for the first time that, too, against the West Indies at Lord’s. We didn’t think so much,” Kapil Dev had told The Statesman over a telephonic interview earlier this year.
“Honestly, I don’t remember what I thought initially after Holding got out. If I can remember that after 37 years, I should have been a genius. But, of course, I was happy,” Kapil Dev had said while describing how he felt after winning the World Cup.
“[Inside the dressing room] there was just celebration at that moment like a new baby was born in the house. We didn’t think or see anything… we were just so happy. And winning the World Cup… it was any cricketer’s dream. So we were just celebrating and did not speak much because our faces revealed everything,” he added.