Kapil Dev Nikhanj was born on January 6, 1959 in Chandigarh. He made his first class debut in November 1975 at the age of 17. However, he made Test debut on October 16, 1978 at Faisalabad against Pakistan.
He held the record for the most number of Test and One-Day wickets for quite a long time till Courtney Walsh overtook him. Captaining India to win the World Cup in 1983 was the highlight of his illustrious career. Other highlights include leading India to a 2 – 0 series win against a strong England side in England in 1986.
His unbeaten innings of 175 not out against Zimbabwe in the World Cup in 1983 when India were tottering at 17/5 and his 4 successive sixes off Eddie Hemmings in the first innings of the Lord’s Test in 1990 to get 24 runs needed to avoid follow-on are now a part of the cricketing folklore.
His extraordinary Test match figures of more than 5000 runs, 434 wickets along with 64 catches show that he was a world-class cricketer and an all-rounder. He was also adjudged the ‘Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century’.
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Eminent wrestler, Kartar Singh was born in a family of wrestlers on October 7, 1953 at Sur Singh Wala village in Amritsar district of Punjab.
The disciple of famous Guru Hanuman, Kartar Singh is a wrestler by birth. While pursuing his school education he won wrestling championship in the National School Games. In 1975, he was able to win the title of Bharat Kumar. Kartar Singh was the National Champion from 1973 to 1988 and the All India Police Champion from 1977 to 1990. He thrice took part in the Asian Games and every time brought medals for India. In 1978 and 1986 Asiad he won gold while in 1982 he fetched silver for India.
In the Asian Championship, he claimed gold in 1983 and silver in 1979 and 1980. He captained the Indian wresding team to the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Kartar Singh was honored by the Indian government with the Arjuna Award in 1982 and the Padma Shri in 1987.