Today In 1987, Kapil Dev Showed True Sportsman Spirit - India Lost The Match, But The Skipper Won The Respect

A true sportsman who does what is right or what he believes to be the right thing to do even if it is not a popular decision or can cost one's side a victory. Kapil Dev found himself in this situation on October 9, 1987 against Australia in the World Cup.

The game was being played in Chennai where only the previous year the same two sides had played out a tied Test, only the second time it had happened. So what was the incident exactly? Here's what happened.

Reuters/BCCI

Dean Jones stepped out and hit Maninder Singh over long on. Ravi Shastri, who was the fielder, tried to go for the catch but the ball eluded him. Jones felt the ball was well over the ropes while keeper Kiran More felt it looked for like a four. Shastri himself said it was a four and the umpire called it so. But Aussie coach Bob Simpson was not happy. He clearly saw the ball go over the rope and felt Shastri was not being honest. The umpire said the matter could be brought up during the break.

When the innings ended, Aussie manager Alan Crompton declared he was unhappy with the decision of calling it a four. The Australian team management spoke to the umpires who then approached Kapil. The Indian skipper, being the great man that he was, agreed to having it overturned and called a six. So the score of 268/6 was now 270/6.

Reuters

Now why did it turn out to be so crucial? Well because India lost their way sliding from 207/2 to 265/9. The score was 269 when Maninder, the last man, was castled by Steve Waugh. We lost by 1 run but would have won by 1 wicket if the original target had still been the one we were chasing.

Yes, we lost the match, but Kapil won the respect as a skipper. Australia would go on to win the tournament while we would lose to England in the semis. This was not the only sporting gesture in the competition. In another league game, Courtney Walsh would spare the non striker from a run out despite being within his rights by the rules. It would cost West Indies a chance to make it to the semis while Pakistan would go through to lose to the Aussies.

India and Australia played out a thriller on that day 32 years ago. In 1992, they would once again clash in a World Cup game where the Aussies would win by just 1 run. But that is a tale for another day.