Day 9 of 10 - KAPIL DEV(IL)...

Kapil Dev - 1987
Poster colors on Paper (8" x 10")     

Kapil Dev Nihankj - one of India's finest Cricketers of all-time, led the Indian Team to win its first World Cup in 1983. A passionate, stylish, and talented Cricket player, he always played with the spirit of winning for the Country. He was my favorite Cricketer since my 5th class until he retired in 1994.

Got introduced in School...

I have had many memories of Cricket game from the days of listening radio commentary to watching live matches on TV. In our school, one of the cooks in the kitchen was our source for Cricket scores. We used to hang around a window in our recess time while he was cutting vegetables with his transistor radio on inside the kitchen. We got introduced to Cricket in our school at the age of 9 by playing. Our school had nice & big grounds, and all the Cricket equipment. Gavaskar and Kapil Dev were the two super-heroes of the Indian Cricket at that time.

My memories of Kapil Dev...

In my Intermediate in Vijayawada, once I went with my friends to watch "Deodhar Trophy" one-day match between North and South. Kapil Dev was supposed to be playing on that day for North, but due to some reason he couldn't make it. We were bit disappointed. Roger Binny entertained the crowd with his batting and bowling. I missed the only chance I got to watch him play on the Cricket grounds.

On my first overseas trip to London in 1994 on a TCS project, I was super thrilled to spend a day in "Tunbridge Wells" - a small and beautiful town, one hour from London. That was the place where Kapil Dev created a history, played an unforgettable innings with his unbeaten 175 which lifted India’s team spirits and kept India alive in the World Cup. Unfortunately, his batting on that day was not live-telecasted as BBC cameras were on strike.

A great all-time Cricketer, Kapil was named "Indian Cricketer of the Century". I bought the book "World of Kapil Dev" by Kapil and his wife Romi Dev, came out in the market soon after he retired holding the world record of most number of wickets in Test matches surpassing Richard Hadlee. I still have it with me. I also have a "Thums Up Flip Book", when flipped pages one side rapidly shows Kapil's bowling in action. Flipped the other way, shows Kapil drinking "Thumbs Up" drink and showing his  thumbs up at the end.

Back to 1987...

The initial days of my watercolor exploration with Camel Poster colors is clearly visible in this one of my very first paintings done in 2nd year Engineering in Vijayawada. This painting was based on an Ad printed in Sports Weekly. I think the Ad was for a shaving cream and so he is seen with a towel on shoulders. I was so accurate at portraits in pencil and ballpoint-pen by then already. This was the first portrait in Watercolors which gave me some level of self-confidence that I could also paint portraits.

Later, I added India map and his name - KAPIL DEV. My classmate Bhanu Murthy - a hardcore fan of Kapil came up with several captions when he saw this, I chose Kapil Devil and extended the name by adding (IL).

"Kapil Dev" was the first of a sportsmen I did a portrait. I also did fast sketches of Ravi Shastri and Tendulkar.

This painting in my Art portfolio always takes me back to my school and college days of playing Cricket. I was a good medium pace bowler, bowling with good line and length. I did introduce Cricket to both of my Sons, Rithvik and Bhuvan at young age of 8 and 6. I brought a pair of bats, wickets, gloves and balls from India. Weekends, three of us used to go to grounds to play Cricket, Soccer and Baseball. We also used to play on our driveway with tennis balls. Both are good at sports, picked up Cricket in no time. Rithvik is very stylish at batting, Bhuvan is a very fine bowler & batsman.

Cricket is a nice sport, 2nd widely followed and watched sport in the world, after Soccer.

Still, America ignores it ;)