1983 World Cup win was the greatest moment of my life, says Kapil Dev
Kapil Dev, who led India to 1983 World Cup win despite a 66-1 odds, stated that the tournament win was the greatest moment of his life and the other members of the team would also echo the sentiment. Dev had carried a bottle of champagne in his bag when he went to the ground to play the final.
Until the 1983 World Cup, India had won only 12 out of its 40 ODI matches. In terms of win-loss ratio, it was only ahead of Sri Lanka, a team which had obtained Test status only the previous year. Even in the World Cup matches, India had won one match, against East Africa. Coming into the tournament, the Indian team even lost a warm-up match against a team of farmers and salesmen and considering everything, £670 payout for a £10 punt for the bookmakers on India.
However, Kapil’s Devils, as they are popularly known as they shocked everyone on their way to the final and beat Clive Lloyd’s men at the Lord’s to start new dawn in Indian cricket. As India earmarked on yet another journey, the former Indian skipper remembered that day and stated that it was the greatest day for him.
“It means everything. It was the greatest moment of my life and I am sure the other 13 cricketers will also echo the same emotion. It was a splendid victory. I carried a bottle of champagne in my bag when I went to the ground to play the final. What I can recall is that I had the belief that we can win the Cup. I was the captain and if the captain does not have confidence then how will he inject the same into the other members of the team? I told myself even if we lose, we still can celebrate the moment of reaching the final,” Kapil told Cricbuzz.
“Beating West Indies in the final and winning the cup were really champagne moments. But the authorities thought otherwise. They could not think that India can win and they kept the champagne bottle in the West Indies dressing room with the hope that they will win the Cup for the third time.
“I went straight to Clive Lloyd and told him that I am taking the champagne bottles for my boys since you don't require them now. Clive just nodded his head and I brought all the champagne bottles from the West Indies dressing room.”
The win has been India’s greatest wins in many ways as it broke new ground and gave India a genius named Sachin Tendulkar. The win also saw the beginning of a new dawn in Indian cricket, where the team was no more an also-ran rather a team of superstars. Kapil added that the mentality of winning that game stemmed from the fact that they had the belief in themselves.
“We did not have a big total. So we had to attack and kept the slip fielders right through the innings. Do you know what I said to the boys in the lunch break? I told them that although it's a 60-over game, we have to finish the game in three hours if we want to win the game. Because I knew if they would have batted for 60 overs they would score 183-plus runs easily. So we had only one option, to attack from the first ball and finish the game in three hours. Our bowlers bowled really well and finally we became champions.” the former Indian skipper said.
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