Led by the legendary Indian all rounder Kapil Dev, India won the world cup for the first time in 1983 against a formidable West Indies led by Clive Lloyd, in a low scoring final on 25th June. Batting first at Lords, India scored a paltry 183 and most of the Indians, home or abroad, readied themselves for runners slot, which too was a very good prospect on those days. But with the early fall of a couple of West Indian wickets India started dreaming to clinch.
Then onwards, it was a sheer thrill to watch the West Indian wicket falling at regular intervals with the Indian spectators bursting into thunderous applauds. This writer, 35, at that time and could vividly remember those moments when Mohinder Amarnath’s last delivery trapped Michel Holding leg before with Umpire Dickie Bird’s finger going up and Amarnath, in a frenzy notched up a bail of the wicket and started- probably the fastest sprinting of his life-towards pavilion to avoid a sea of Indian supporters flooding the field. West Indies were all down for 140, giving India a hard fought, well deserved 43 run victory, dashing the hopes of West Indians winning the world cup for the third time in a row. Mohinder Amarnath was adjudged ‘Man of the Match.’
Although, India was considered no hopers for the cup initially, but with the progress of the matches, India started coming out of its shell. In one of the matches against Zimbabwe, a nascent team, India was down at 17 for five! Then came the splendor of Kapil Dev. He scored a memorable innings of 175 not out that has no parallel till date. In fact it was a turning point in India’s world cup campaign.
Sunil Gavaskar, considered best ever opener of India, had not performed well scoring a total of just 59 in six matches he played out of a total eight. As fortune would have, India won all those six matches and lost the two in which Sunny did not play. To have just some inkling of the matches, which used to be 60 overs on those days, I quote a summery of the matches below that crafted Indian win.
June’9 : Old Trafford : India 262/8, West Indies 228
June’11: Leicester : Zimbabwe 155, India 157/5
June’13: Trent Bridge : Australia 320/9, India 158
June’15: Oval : West Indies 282/9, India 216
June’18: Tunbridge Wells: India 266/8, Zimbabwe 235
June’20: Chelmsford : India 247, Australia 129
June’22:Semi-final:Old Trafford: England 213, India 217/4
June’25: Final : Lords: India 183, (Amarnath 26, Sandep Patil 27, Srikant 38). West Indies 140, (Amarnath 3/12, Madanlal 3/31, Balwinder Sandhu 2/32)
Roger Binny was highest wicket taker in the tournament with 18 wickets followed by Madanlal with 17 and Kapil with 12. Kapil was top scorer for India with 303 runs.
To commemorate such a stupendous performance, BCCI arranged a gathering of all the players of the winning team on Sunday the 22nd June’08 at Delhi. Fourteen players and the then manager of the team, P.R.Man Singh once again relived the day. Known popularly as ‘Kapil’s Devils’, it was a perfect occasion for these players to unwind, relive and commemorate the day. The function was attended by BCCI officials including Sharad Pawar, the President.
Every body has his words praising each other, but the most forceful speech came from Ravi Shastri. He said, “ As the youngest member of the world cup team, I can say that this team won every thing in a span of just two years; the World Cup, the Asia Cup, the Benson & Hedges world series and the Rothman’s Cup."
As a part of commemoration, each player was presented with a cheque of Rs.25 lakhs and a. memento. A diamond adorned bat with 25 diamonds, each of 25 carats and signed by the players was unveiled and would be auctioned at Lords on 25th June. The proceeds would go to the 15 members of the team equally.