On this day, 40 years ago, cricket changed. India’s World Cup win on 25 June, 1983, altered the face of Indian cricket for all time to come. Cricketers metamorphosed into national icons. It transformed cricket into an unofficial national sport and a lucrative career option. The middle and lower middle-class Indians started to see cricket as a viable career option for their kids. Unlike in the period before 1983, these social groups have dominated cricket in India since the 1990s.
The victory paved the way for corporate sponsors to invest in the sport. It gave the media an event to hype and saw the birth of coaching clinics across the country, reaching a high point with the establishment of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore and zonal cricket academies in Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai at the start of the millennium. Forty years later, professional cricketers are some of India’s highest paid stars and the sport one of the most watched and marketable properties.
Much has been written about the final in the last two decades. That the achievement had not been digested is evident from the rather tame match reports following this stunning victory. Reality dawned only a day later. The Press Trust of India reported, “Jubilant Indian players and their supporters celebrated India’s sensational win in the World Cup with champagne and bhangra till the early hours of yesterday morning.”
Even Pakistani stalwarts like Abdul Qadir and Sarfaraz Nawaz joined the Indians and the huge bottle of champagne that Amarnath had earned as Player of the Match, was emptied in no time. Indian supporters, many carrying the tri-colour, would not leave the Lord’s cricket ground hours after India’s victory as they waited for Kapil Dev and his team to come out from a reception hosted by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Later, they went to the hotel to cheer for their heroes.
The headlines in the English papers summed it well. The Times declared, “Kapil’s men turn the world upside down: Cannon fodder turned cannon.” The Sunday Express reported that India’s victory was the biggest upset in cricketing history. Tony Lewis wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that India had performed one of the “most mystical acts in her long cricket history.”
Several years later, about the same time as India had won the 1983 World Cup, Kapil stood next to the nursery ground at Lord’s. Asked if he was indeed remembering that incredible occasion, he smiled before opening up to narrate some fascinating stories about that historic day. Excerpts
Is it true that you had secretly carried a bottle of champagne with you on the morning of the final? It was no secret. I did indeed carry a bottle of champagne because I was confident of our chances based on the kind of cricket we had played in the Prudential cup. And as the game got over I went to the West Indian dressing room to speak to Clive Lloyd and was surprised to see cartons of champagne lying around. Clive, who I still call skipper, was justly disappointed with the result and I remember telling him that he and his boys wouldn’t need the champagne bottles and they were better off being in our dressing room. Clive readily obliged and I carried four champagne bottles back to our dressing room. These are the bottles you have seen in photographs of our celebrations.
Against the West Indies, 183 wasn’t a very tall ask. At what point did you think you could actually win the game? I never thought that 183 was no total for them to chase. I was always looking at it from the point of view that we had scored 183 and they needed to score that many to win the cup. And I said to the boys that all we needed to do was bowl and field at our best for 3 hours to make history. As the 4th wicket fell, we started to feel we could close out the game because it was evident to us all that the West Indians were under pressure. We kept picking up wickets and with each wicket the pressure mounted on them.
We have heard that you finished off a bottle of milk soon after you returned to the dressing room after winning the game! Yes, I did because I was very hungry. And the milk here was very good so it was something I really enjoyed!
When Viv Richards’ catch went up and you were under the ball, did any thought cross your mind? I’ve been asked this question many times before. My mind was completely blank when I was under the ball. When you are trying to take a catch you can’t clutter your mind with negative thoughts. All you need to do is focus on the ball and take the catch.
For Sir Clive Lloyd, 1983 remains a melancholic memory that he has re-lived many times since. While the wound has healed with time, the scar remains. Chasing a third consecutive World Cup title as captain, Lloyd was emphatic in declaring there was no question of complacency. The West Indians had lost to India in the opening round of the tournament and knew what Kapil and his men were capable of. “They had beaten Australia and England on their way to the final and had some excellent all-round cricketers in the team,” Lloyd said.
It was just that the final was a bad day, a day when nothing worked for the West Indies when they came out to bat. “Bowling India out for 183 was a very good effort, and on most days, we would easily chase this score down,” he lamented.
“But for cricket, however, it was a great result. It helped Indian cricket turn into something fundamentally different and world cricket, too, benefitted from this turnaround.”
Finally, the idea that the West Indies could be beaten had seeped in and it had the effect of breaking the West Indian monopoly. ‘Even when we beat the Indians convincingly in the winter of 1983, we knew that it was only a matter of time before they became a cricketing superpower. The self-belief the World Cup victory had given Indian cricket had little parallel. It was great for your cricket,” said the greatest West Indian captain ever.
When India won the World Cup, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was not in a good financial health. The board’s coffers were nearly empty and rewarding the players for the historic win was a difficult task.
In came Lata Mangeshkar, the legendary singer. A special concert was held in honour of the victorious Indian cricket team and the money raised from the concert was used to pay the players a sum of `1 lakh each. In appreciation, the BCCI allowed Lata to host a charity match a decade and a half later to raise funds for the Deenanath Mangeshkar hospital.
“It was a matter of great pleasure for me to be able to do this. The World Cup win was a historic moment and it meant I was thus connected with the win in some way. The players were all very gracious and it was a proud moment for me. As a cricket fan who had watched and lived the moment, the concert made it even more special for me,” Lata later said.
