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On this day: India's 1983 World Cup triumph: When Kapil Dev's 'Originals' redrew cricketing map

On this day: 1983 World Cup triumph: When Kapil Dev's 'Originals' redrew cricketing map in India. On June 25, India beat West Indies to annex their first 50-over World Cup title at Lords.

On June 25, India beat West Indies to annex their first 50-over World Cup title at Lords

Bengaluru, June 25: The 1983 World Cup fires flashbulb memories in a fan unlike any other sporting event. It has been burned into the conscience of a nation that images of that tournament only get sharper by each passing year.

This June 25, 2020 (Thursday) marks the 37th year of India captained by Kapil Dev registering an epochal win at Lord's defeating Clive Lloyd's West Indies. It is certainly for the romantics - the ultimate sporting story of triumph of the underdogs. Sporting history has been littered around with such moments too.

1983 WORLD CUP FINAL SCORECARD

We have James 'Buster' Douglas defeating Mike Tyson in 1990, Richard Krajicek and Pat Cash winning the Wimbledon in 1996 and 1987 respectively and more recently Leicester City ended a 132-year drought winning the Premier League in 2016. All of them had caught the lightning in the bottle and India's '83 triumph too features in that category.

Here we have a deviation. Many of those moments did not have any succession, they are still encapsulated in that particular time frame. However, that set of players led by Kapil Dev continued to give us some brilliant moments in the years to come and they redrew the map of the sport itself in the country.

The 1983 bull run was followed by the victory in the World Series Cricket in Australia in 1985 and a Test series win in England two years later. It was not that Indian cricket experienced glory days before that but such sustained brilliance was never seen and the cricket suddenly was not just about the then big three - West Indies, Australia, England.

The little brother no longer wanted to stand behind the cosy shadow of elders. The Lord's saga had its effect off the field too. The image of cricket in the country has changed - players became super stars, endorsements began to flow in, corporates began to see the sport as a well-oiled marketing machine.

In turn, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) stretched every sinew to cash in on the opportunity. The '83 win and the subsequent results gave the BCCI confidence and strength to get the 50-over World Cup to India in 1987. It was the first time the World Cup left the shores of England. It was a symbolic change of baton, establishment of a new world order in cricket. India's voice no longer could be muffled. It was the beginning of the Indian governing body's ascendancy as a financial super power.

That the Board had two brilliant administrators in Jagmohan Dalmiya and Inder Singh Bindra helped the progress of cricket to no end. But the real effect of this victory was in the minds of a generation of cricket followers in India.

Indian fans finally got home-grown stars to adulate, eulogise and tell tales of. They longer had to read and envy about the big feats of cricketers from England or Australia but they now had their own Sunil Gavaskar or Kapil Dev or Ravi Shastri.

The wannabe cricketers in India at that time got role models closer home. The centre spreads of Kapil, Shastri and Dilip Vengsarkar began to jostle for space with other icons on the walls of countless bedrooms across the country. They were empowered by the feeling that being a world champion was not beyond an Indian sportsperson.

The hurricane hundred Kapil Dev made against Zimbabwe, Kapil's running catch to dismiss Viv Richards, Balwinder Singh Sandhu's giant of an inswinger that castled Gordon Greenidge, Mohinder Amarnath running back to pavilion with a wide grin...they were not just shining sporting nuggets.

They set in motion a chain reaction in Indian cricket producing pleasant results. New heroes emerged. New shores were conquered. More trophies were added.

Perhaps, all that would not have been possible without the Originals of 1983.

Story first published: Thursday, June 25, 2020, 9:33 [IST]
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