We are celebrating 25 years of India's first (only) Cricket World Cup triumph.
Where was I on 25th June 1983? I had just started my second year of B Sc physics. Had already played age group tournaments and cricket was the sun around which the whole world revolved those days.
There was no television in Palghat (It took another couple of years for the low power transmitter to be installed) and I had to depend on my reliable Philips transistor (not the pocket transistor as I was following the match on BBC).
I can still remember the English commentators like John Arlot, Fred Truman and co dismissing India's chances with contempt. Though irritating, you couldn't blame them. West Indies under Lloyd were perhaps the greatest team the world has seen (there are many who might disagree claiming the Australian team of the late 90's and early 2000 were greater. I beg to disagree. Any team that has a top of the draw openers in Greenidge and Haynes followed by the great Viv Richards and Lloyd with Larry Golmes steadying the boat is unmatched. And they had a wonderful wicket keeper in Jeff Dujon. And who would want to face Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Malcom Marshall. And that too without the kind of protective gear that you have today. The WI were very very intimidating). And India? A bunch of cricketers who had not done anything of note till then in one day cricket. In fact we were all happy that India had reached the final and like Roger Federers opponents today, quite satisfied with being on the same arena with the undisputed champions.
The match started at around 3 pm Indian time. Remember it was 60 overs a side with red ball and white dresses. One day cricket those days was more akin to the longer version of the game than the spectacle it is today. You could still see 3 slips and a gully at the start. Conventional cricket strokes were the norm. No one played the slog sweep, or the upper cut or the inside out cover drive or the reverse sweep or the paddle. It was a different era. And a different game.
We had expected India to score at least 225-250 after their solid performance against the England in the Semifinal. But we were to be disappointed. Half way through the West Indies innings with Viv going great guns, my father had enough. He went to his bed room. I was in my bedroom listening to the commentary which waxed and waned over the Short Wave. When Malcolm Marshal got out, it was late in the night and I rushed to my fathers room and sat on the floor beside his bed with the radio placed strategically on the bed near him so that we can both hear the commentary clearly. We were living in a house which was quite isolated. When Mohinder took the final wicket, we just shouted 'we won' invoking a quick rebuke from the mother who was quite irritated with all the sound and noise. Many like me savoured the victory with the family. This is something that is missing these days.
It took a while for it all to sink in. It still hasn't 25 years down the line. We had to wait for the newspapers of 27th June to read all about it (the paper for 26th was already printed while India won). We spoke of nothing but this feat in the college for one week.
India went from strength to stregth after the World Cup triumph, though we never won another after that. But World Cup 1983 marked the arrival of India as a Cricket super power and today we lord over the Cricketing World, limitedly on the cricket field as one of the best teams and wholy on the administrative side. And spare a thought for the mighty West Indies. It was perhaps the beginning of the end for the all conquering West Indians under Clive Llloyd. A couple of years more of supremacy and then it has been downhill all the way.
There is a lot of nostalgia about following cricket those days. But then we feel nostalgic about everything about the past. Life goes on.
But for a country starved of sporting achievements, winning World Cup 1983 as an underdog, was truly wonderful
