MUMBAI: Distance, whether it is in space or time, does lend enchantment to the view. Not surprisingly, therefore, reliving India’s World Cup triumph, 25 years on, appeared a much bigger happening than the original event itself.
Every member of Kapil Dev’s Cup-winning team, not to mention the captain himself, was eulogized in a manner that words fell short, but not the money, as each received Rs.25 lakhs and several mementos. What was even more heartening was the fact that the Board of Control for Cricket in India got officially involved in the celebration originally planned by Sunil Gavaskar.
The electronic media, which has grown by leaps and bounds in the last two decades, went head-over-heels on the coverage and the flashback of the achievement flew in all directions to finally come to one conclusion that it was the greatest thing to happen to Indian cricket.
When recently, the young Indian team had returned from South Africa after winning the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup and was given a rousing reception in Mumbai and elsewhere, there were some who felt that the whole, big celebration was overdone. One wonders what they will have to say now when a similar triumph was pulled out of the archives and made the cause of as big a celebration.
No one will deny that the 1983 World Cup-winning team members deserved to get today what they missed 25 years ago. The euphoria at that time was less rewarding, as the BCCI did not have any money in its coffers then. By a happy coincidence, all the players who had made up the 1983 team were able to come on one stage. They all looked as sprightly and as jubilant they were at Lord’s of London that summer day of June 25 when they had proudly lifted the Cup.
That this team of 1983 could win the World Cup had stunned many experts, not the least the official bookmakers, who had quoted odds of 100 to one on India. What then had made the team click?
One must remember that one-day cricket had not yet entered the realm of specialization and the Indian team, like so many others, was made up of all Test players. Their greatest virtue was teamwork. They made up the whole with small contributions from all rather than just a big one from one or two. United they rose to the challenges. The alchemy of one for all and all for one paid off.
As Ravi Shastri, the youngest member of that triumphant team and now a leading commentator, so succinctly put it, “That triumph changed the face of Indian cricket, as it did the lives of many of us.” Mahendra Singh Dhoni, an emerging leader of a whole, new generation of players, could not have put the emotion of the moment in better perspective than when he said: “We hope to repeat that stupendous feat very soon. We stand greatly inspired.”
