NEWS
SCHEDULES
COLUMNS
PREVIOUS TOURS
OTHER SPORTS
STATISTICS
INTERVIEWS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Courtney Walsh breaks Kapil's record

The Rediff Team

Courtney Walsh broke Kapil Dev's record for taking the largest number of wickets when he took the wicket of Henry Olonga in the second Test against Zimbabwe today.

There was weeping in the stands after the wicket fell, Walsh's 435th, effectively ending Zimbabwe's resistance in the match and leaving the West Indies just 72 to win.

He went into the match needing just five victims to reach the magic figure. He took two wickets in the first innings and three in the second. He crossed the record in his 115th Test, while Kapil Dev made it in 131.

Calling from Sharjah, former captain and India's coach at present Kapil Dev congratulated Walsh and expressed his happiness at his having broken the record. He also had had four bottles of champagne sent over to Walsh in anticipation of the record being broken.

After the day's play ended in bad light, Walsh was felicitated by the prime minister of Jamaica, the chairman of the West Indian Cricket board and others.

"Honestly, I am very happy that Courtney has achieved this and that too in his own country," he said when asked for his reactions at the end of the India-South Africa match in Sharjah.

"Get drunk, Courtney, and enjoy," he said with a big smile.

Asked for his rating of Courtney, he said, "A bowler who takes so many wickets has to be good... More importantly, I think, is his fitness, even after playing international cricket for 20 years.

"We all should be proud of him. The world goes ahead ... I broke somebody's record. I was the record holder in the last century and Courtney achieved it in this century...." Kapil Dev, said.

Kapil said that with more and more matches being played, players were breaking the records faster and that "no record will last long".

Kapil Dev had himself achieved the record by surpassing that of New Zealander Sir Richard Hadlee's tally of 431 wickets.

Leading wicket-takers in Tests

Bowler	Country	Tests	Wickets	Best Bowling	5w / I	10 w / Match
Courtney Walsh	West Indies	115	435	7-37	17	2
Kapil Dev	India	131	434	9-83	23	2
Richard Hadlee	New Zealand	86	431	9-52	36	9
Wasim Akram	Pakistan	92	383	7-119	22	4
Ian Botham	England	102	383	8-34	27	4
Curtly Ambrose	West Indies	90	377	8-45	22	3
Malcolm Marshall	West Indies	81	376	7-22	22	4
Shane Warne	Australia	83	363	8-71	16	4
Imran Khan	Pakistan	88	362	8-58	23	6
Dennis Lillee	Australia	70	355	7-81	23	7
Bob Willis	England	90	325	8-43	16	0
Lance Gibbs	West Indies	79	309	8-38	18	2
Fred Trueman	England	67	307	8-31	17	3

With inputs from UNI