World Cup Moments - 1983

Compared to the previous WCs , this World cup attracted the maximum attention in India, towards the final atleast and I vividly remember this World Cup possibly for the desperation to hear and later watch each match and the other World Cups were all opinions made on hearsay.  This was the World Cup which made me take cricket watching seriously.

The seeds of the Indian triumph were sown much earlier in Berbice where India triumphed in a one day international against the mighty West Indies.  India was combined with Australia , West Indies and Zimbabwe ( ICC Trophy winners ) and all the teams were much stronger on paper than the Indian team. As India went into this World Cup, the team believed in themselves which was very rare for an Indian team and that too against the West Indies. This self belief was reinforced in the first match against the mighty Windies.   The over confidence of the West Indian line up was shattered in the opening match and probably they took it a little lightly to allow the lowly ranked Indians the taste of victory and probably the sweet scent of the World Cup as well.  This contagious positive feeling spread across the team and India began moving forward with every match and achieving greatness and moving to unchartered domains ( where no Indian had every been before !! ).

Along with West Indies , India had Australia in the same group who were quite powerful since the Chappell brothers had returned and Trevor ( the most famous of the Chappell brothers for reasons other than cricket ) scored a century against India .  In the match against Zimbabwe at the relatively unknown Tunbridge Wells ground,  India was struggling at 17 for 5 and with the top half gone , people thought that the match would be over before lunch.  Kapil came in and along with Kirmani slowly started getting the Indian innings back on track. The innings was marvellous ,  for it involved many phases of reconstruction and then taking control and then moving into an attacking position so that it could result in a victory.   For me , it was an old transistor for company and so it was for many people around the world since BBC was on strike that day.   It was similar to listening to a HAM broadcast constantly crackling and frequently going off air.   Kapil finally made 175 not out and the Nataraja pose of Kapil Dev in B&W photographs still adorns many a house. After scoring 175, he came back to take 5 wickets as well in match making him truly the MVP.   India beat West Indies and Australia once in two matches and Zimbabwe twice to qualify for the semi final . 

In the other group,  Pakistan was making decent headway ( they were always stronger on paper than India) and England was living up to its name as a cricket ODI super power.   It was no surprise that Pakistan and England made the semi final from the other group. 

The stage was set for interesting semi finals , India vs England and Pakistan vs West Indies.   Doordarshan at last started believing that history was beginning to unfold and if they didnt telecast the tournament from then on , they would be at the receiving end of millions of cricket watchers.  These were the times when the Govt had to release precious forex to the state owned network to get the overseas feed.  We didnt have  a TV at home and I had to run across and park myself at  my neighbour's house from 3:15 IST to the late hours at night.  The interruptions for news and other irrelevant local farmer programmes did make matters easier to time your dinner and snack breaks.  Delhi viewers were the priveleged ones since they didnt have local programmes and got to watch the telecast when it was there. 

The India England match was characterised by good swing and middle overs bowling,Kirti Azad was playing the spinners role with great aplomb and Mohinder Amarnath was swinging the red cherry a great deal with a red handkerchief tucked in his pocket.  The bowling attack which was supposed to be toothless suddenly had fangs of a serpent all ready to attack.   England was contained to a manageable total but it did require a good determined batting effort to make sure that India finished on the winning side.   The middle order of Yashpal , Mohinder and Sandeep was not the batting which the opposition would panic especially since they had Botham , Willis , Dilley and Allott.  India went hard at the Englishmen and were rewarded with a place in the World Cup final . 

The other semi final was eagerly followed where many an Indian did not want the wounded West Indies in the way and would have gladly swapped it for Pakistan instead.   West Indies didnt break a sweat brushing aside Pakistan and the stage was set for another India - West Indies match .  The match merits a separate blog post  and so continue reading on to the next one.....