His entry into cricket
He was born in a timber merchant's family on january 6th, 1959. In retrospect, his wielding willow could, conceivably, have been fashioned in the family backyard. However, he did not have cricket in his lineage. All that he had was the fierce determination of the native punjabi. The innate desire to fight and build. His father , Ramlal Nikhanj, was a strict disciplinarian and instilled the ethic of hardwork in him from an early age. He did not play his first game of cricket till the age of 13. It all happened, ironically, by accident. Chandigarh is divided into sectors (suburbs) and kapil used to watch the older kids playing inter-sector matches. One sunday the sector 16 team was one player short and kapil was roped in. The sector 16 team was one of the strongest teams in chandigarh, boasting three ex-ranji players. Kapil impressed them and became a regular member in the team. The Nikhanj family were from the kshatriyas class, the warrior class. Broadly speaking, Hinduism in the northern plains differs from the rest of India, not in essence but in practice. In the words of kapil:-

"It is impossible to define Hinduism. It defies rationality as we know it.Notwithstanding, it is a product of pure rationale. Its fundamental difference from Christianity is that it does not have a world governing body. No Vatican nor Archbishop of Canterbury. Its a religion immersed in tenets and doctrines that have, over the years, become a way of life. 'What will be, will be'. Fate, destiny, call it what you will, but this is the anecdote of the poor and dispensed with by the rich. The middle class accept it. They neither expound nor sink into apathy. The middle class contemporary Indian is the stabilising element. They balance the extremes of blind faith and studied pseudo-religiosity. I am a product of practising Hinduism. My life is governed by the logic and wisdom inherent in the Rig Vedas."