Thread:
Happy Birthday @therealkapildev
Kapil Dev was always present, in every cricket-crazy consciousness of India of my boyhood

#onthisday #cricket

One just had to close one’s eyes & the graceful, lithe run up could be seen, leap before delivery, head tilted to the left, right hand close to the chest left raised in front of the face, and then the left arm extended outwards as the right came around to send down the delivery
All through the 1980s with more cricket being telecast one found almost every cricket pitch, from coaching centres to school games, full of bowling actions that were almost exact replicas of the great man’s. Yes, Indians could bowl pace, successfully, and Kapil had shown the way
Anyone with more than a few paces in his run up seemed to follow in his excellent steps, at least as far as running up to the wicket was concerned. Almost every young lad in the country aspiring to bowl pace at any level of the game emulated the action.
From the early eighties, some occasionally tried to model their run up on Malcolm Marshall, although few managed the pace. One or two made a decent caricature of Imran Khan. But by and large, the template remained uniformly Kapil.
Kapil’s magic continued when India batted. The fall of the fifth wicket was always much awaited, greeted with rousing cheers. The enormously popular hero would walk in, look back at the sun, and then stride to the wicket.
Unlike his bowling, his batting was seldom imitated. The array of strokes was strictly his own, from the scorching square cut to the searing cover drive to the agricultural pull stroke, in the manner of Lord Nataraj performing the cosmic Tandav
Kapil at the crease was the height of adrenaline pumping excitement. He was not just admired, he was adored. However brief his forays to the wicket, his game never failed to electrify the crowds.
And then there were the movements as he prowled in the field.
After his seasons for Northamptonshire, he preferred spending more time in the slips, but I used to wait for him to move to cover or mid-on.
The anticipation and athleticism while cutting off a stroke, and then the whooshing arrow-like return to the wicketkeeper, often after a full turn — there was an incredible animal grace about those actions.
India had fielders like Mohammad Azharuddin and Maninder Singh. For a few blessed seasons, they had Laxman Sivaramakrishnan as well. But, Kapil was special in a different way. Every act of brilliance on the field spoke of a raw, natural genius.
Kapil Dev - greatest all-round athlete of Indian cricket ...

born 6 Jan 1959.
#cricket #onthisday @therealkapildev

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Over 70 former professional rugby players are preparing for legal action against the sport’s governing bodies according to this report.

The group litigation seems to be in its early stages, but World Rugby & Unions will be starting to get twitchy.

THREAD on the key issues 👇🏼


1) Duty of care

Do the governing bodies (World Rugby, RFU, WRU etc) owe players a duty of care in respect of their health and safety? The answer is almost certainly yes (see for example Watson v BBBoC).

2) Breach of duty

Have the governing bodies breached this duty? This is the first of the major hurdles for any litigation.

The question is essentially whether they acted reasonably in the circumstances.

Did they know about the dangers of concussion and fail to act?

Or should they have done more to discover the dangers of concussion but failed to do so?

The NFL case was based on the fact that the NFL knew of the dangers and covered them up. I’d suggest that’s unlikely here. However, it may be that WR/Unions should have done more sooner.

Much will depend upon the state of medical/scientific understanding of concussion at the relevant times.

For example, in the early 80s it may be that there was no indication that concussion might cause long-term complications but, by the early 2000s, there was.
Thiago Alcantara, a THREAD


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I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.


I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.

In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.

So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.

Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.