Kapil Dev is regarded as one of the greatest cricketers of all time, a player who excelled at batting, bowling, fielding and captaincy. Dev is the only player in history to have taken more than 400 wickets and scored more than 5,000 runs in tests and was voted India’s Cricketer of the Century in 2002, ahead of batting superstars Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.
When Dev retired in 1994, he held the world record for the highest number of test wickets taken (434) and was captain of the Indian cricket team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup, the first Indian captain to do so, ahead of MS Dhoni. Kapil Dev is still the youngest captain at the age of 24 to win a cricket World Cup for any team.
As an example of his greatness, here is a three-minute clip of Kapil Dev batting at Lords with India nine wickets down and needing 24 to avoid the follow on, with former teammate Sunil Gavaskar and the inimitable Richie Benaud in commentary. (Spoiler-alert – Dev clobbered four sixes in a row!)
Allan Lamb (pictured above) was a fine batsman for England and as a county cricketer, he was voted by supporters as Northamptonshire’s greatest ever player. Lamb and Dev played against each other many times during the 1980’s and it is only through their enduring friendship that I own one of Kapil Dev’s Indian cricket caps:
Here is the written note of authenticity that came with the cap, signed by Allan Lamb:
I also own one of Allan Lamb’s youth England caps:
So what would Kapil Dev’s test cricket cap be worth today?
As a guide, you could check out this interactive by The Guardian for the values of 142 Baggy Green Australian caps.
More importantly, what if it was possible for many cricket fans to own Kapil Dev’s cricket cap, all at once? Something now known as real world asset (RWA) fractionalisation has been made possible through technological advancements and the benefits are game-changing, as you will discover here.
