CRICKET KICK
1983 World Cup win triggered India’s obsession with game
New Delhi, June 24: “First love cannot be forgotten,” is how one member of Kapil Dev’s team describes India’s debut cricket World Cup win on June 25, 1983 — a victory that aroused passions so fierce they would change the game forever.
When ‘Kapil Devils’ stunned the West Indies at the Lord’s, the traditional home of cricket, it triggered an obsession with the sport in India and created its biggest market — ultimately making India’s board the richest and most powerful in the world.
India was previously a hockey-loving nation, owing to their five Olympic gold medals between 1948 and 1980. But three years later, India’s cricketers became world-beaters.
Nobody saw the victory coming, after India came into the one-day tournament with just one win — against East Africa — in the previous two editions.
“We never, ever imagined we would reach the quarterfinal or the knockout stage,” Syed Kirmani, the team’s flamboyant wicketkeeper-batsman, said.
“A few of my colleagues in that team had expressed themselves that ‘we are going to have fun, enjoy ourselves and that’s it’. But we laid a very strong foundation by winning the Cup. It is like the first love cannot be forgotten. Thirty-seven years have gone, people still remember our victory,” he added.
“The younger generation are also keen to know when we won the first World Cup and who were the players. Oh God, it is a fantastic, nostalgic feeling,” Kirmani recalled.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni later led India to the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup title in 2007 and their second ODI world trophy in 2011, but the victory in England will always remain a watershed moment.
Roger Binny, who sent back West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd for eight in the final, said Kapil’s leadership and India’s allrounders were key to the team’s success. “I think it has got be the allrounders. If you see the scores in all the matches, contributions came from the latter half of the team,” Binny said.
“Definitely one strong point was (Dev’s) captaincy. Also when we beat the West Indies in the first game in Manchester, that lifted the spirit of the guys,” he added. —