1983-Facts and Fiction

Extenuating circumstances: Part II

Now it had been nearly a year since Kapil's debut and the Kapil Dev-Mohinder Amarnath bond had already grown into the sort it would remain for the rest of their lives.

To Jimmy, Kapil was everything you could ask for in a younger brother—someone who looked up to him like he'd hung the moon (which was, no one could deny, a great moral booster), and who would go to any lengths to stay with him, an unexpected source of source of solidity whom he could tell anything without having to think first. Having grown up with a man like his dad, Jimmy was used to, always, pausing before a moment before speaking. But since Kaps never did the same—said exactly what he felt like saying—and because he had the nicest person at heart Jimmy had ever met, Kaps was his go-to ear to confide in. His little brother for whom he wouldn't mind burning down the whole world.

And to Kapil, Jimmy was everything you could ask for in an elder brother—indulging every whim, never raising his voice, tolerating all his blackmailing and griping and sulking with unshakeable patience, and with love. Every time he'd needed support, Jim pa had been there, and he knew he always would be. Whether it be guiding on the field, checking if he'd eaten, if he'd talked to his parents on foreign tours, trying to lift his spirits after losses or bad performances, Jimmy pa always knew the exact thing to say and the exact thing to do, the omnipresence protecting him from everything. His big brother for whom he wouldn't mind burning down the whole world, either.

The most surprising part of it was how fond Lala ji had got of Kapil in the past year, too. Well, it wasn't really surprising, thought Jimmy—how could anyone not get fond of him?—but the warm and indulgence his dad exhibited towards Kapil far exceeded what he'd ever shown his own sons. Kapil was pretty much the apple of his eyes.

So you would expect, wouldn't you, that Kapil would occasionally throw in a word or two of support in Jimmy's favour? Instead, as an aggrieved Jimmy found out from experience, Lala ji was Kapil's most potent weapon to blackmail him.

At first, Jimmy had thought he was joking.

But when Kapil had—twice—snitched his misdemeanours out to his dad owing to him not granting him some whim like 'come with me for the boat ride even though it's eleven at night' or 'give me English tuitions, Jim pa', which had resulted in Lala ji scolding him for hours, Jimmy started to take his blackmailing very seriously indeed.

No doubt this is why dad was so fond of this devil, giving him opportunities to yell at me.

***

India vs Nottinghamshire, August 1979, Trent Bridge

In a sequence of events now familiar to Indian cricket fans, Jimmy's teammates, and indeed, Jimmy himself, a bouncer—this time from Richard Hadlee—hit his head, knocked him unconscious and made his teammates from the dugout and Kapil—who was batting at the other end, and who shut down the ringing sound of leather hitting bone that was echoing in his ears to run down the pitch—see the harrowing sight of him motionless on the ground.

Two things were different this time—one, he had collapsed on the stumps, thus he was 'out, hit wicket' and not 'retired hurt', not that it would have mattered, because two, he did not regain consciousness in the dugout or in the hospital soon after, and the doctors pronounced the phrase 'skull fracture.'

***

One week later...

Jimmy and Rajinder were presently sitting like statues in their living room, not to piss off an already livid Surinder.

"Bunch of jokers," he was muttering under his breath, along with a long string of curses that are better left undocumented.

"They—they are," said Jimmy. "Everyone knows that."