Kapil Dev compared Indian players with Army jawans in the 1983 final

Apr 6, 2019 at 2:17 PM

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Kapil Dev compared Indian players with Army jawans in the 1983 final

On June 25, 1983, India created history at the Mecca of cricket – the Lord’s. India had won their first ever World Cup rising like a phoenix. They surprised everyone and defied all the speculation and prediction. Today, 33 years later, the 1983 World Cup captain and legendary all-rounder Kapil Dev reflects on India’s campaign. 33 years have passed,  but the charm and importance of 1983 World Cup victory is still omnipresent among the Indian cricket fans. Those who watched that World Cup match and those who not because they were not born or might not have understood the game back then; both now equally understand the value of India’s victory in the 1983 World Cup.

India have won the World Cup second time in 2011 to break the 28-year hiatus as the favourites of the tournament. But India’s victory in 1983 World Cup is more cherished than the victory of 2011. Indian team were not considered as favourites back then.

Kapil had to fight against teams on the field and off the field against the English newspapers.

Kapil Dev in his Wisden India column wrote that India’s campaign in the World Cup a year before when India were touring West  Indies where they were beaten by 2-1 in ODI series and 2-0 in the Test series, helped immensely. According to Kapil, “We didn’t win, but we fought hard on that tour and against the best cricket team in the world. We felt that, if we could push the best in the world so much, we could do better against the other teams and even the West Indians.”

India defeated West Indies in the first match of their World Cup campaign that gave India a belief that they could “push the best in the world so much, we could do better against the other teams and even the West Indians.”

But the match which motivated India a lot was the match against Zimbabwe where India lost their top order for 17 runs. At 17 for 5, Kapil Dev came to bat and scored his career best 175 not out. Kapil recounts the memory, “then it was my turn. I was the captain. I would say that that day was meant to be my day. I just couldn’t do anything wrong. I think that was the best day of my cricket life – in fact, the best day in my life.”

He added, “I pulled my team out of the dumps and set it on the winning path with that innings of 175 [not out]. That gave all of us the confidence that we could win from any situation; no matter who comes our way, we could win.”

In the quarterfinal match, India defeated strong Australia by a huge margin of 118 runs. But still, the British media predicted an England and West Indies final. They didn’t give India a chance. But the ignorance of the Brtish media made Indian players angry and motivated them to beat England in the semifinal.

Kapi Dev wrote, “it was very disappointing to wake up the next morning and read in the papers that everyone was predicting an England vs West Indies final. We were facing England in the semis and no one gave us a chance.”

“But then again, that’s the sort of thing that gives you extra motivation to fight and try that much harder. That’s what we did against England. It was another team performance. Yashpal [61] again played a great innings, as did everyone else. All our batsmen contributed and before that, we bowled very well to finish the England innings at 213,” Kapil recount the tale of the match with pride. blowing out England from the semifinal, India were to meet mighty West Indies in the final at Lord’s. But again everybody started saying India have done well but West Indies would emerge champion. India in their first match defeated West Indies at Old Trafford, Manchester.

After kicking out England from the semifinal, India were to meet mighty West Indies in the final at Lord’s. But again everybody started saying India have done well but West Indies would emerge champion. India in their first match defeated West Indies at Old Trafford, Manchester.

He also revealed that before the day of the final every Indian player wanted to win the match and “I thought I was the captain but I realised that everyone was the captain on that day.”

The legendary allrounder said, “We went to Lord’s for the final and again everyone said that India had done well but now we didn’t stand a chance. Everyone started saying that the West Indies were going to win it once again, for the third time. But I think we had something that no one knew about. There was something up our sleeve – it was the self-confidence and the self-belief.”

Talking about West Indies’ formidable pace quartet he said, “the West Indies had Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall – I think, if you pick up teams from the last 100 years of cricket, you won’t find a pace bowling attack of that calibre. And the pitch was perfect for them. We also had pace bowlers, but we were not as fast as them.”

Garner, Holding, Marshall and Roberts finished India’s innings for 183.  India players were silent.  Kapil  remembered a funny moment,  “I called my players jawans (read Indian Army)… let’s fight till the end”.

But opener Sunil Gavaskar didn’t agree with Kapil, he said, , “stop calling them jawans; we are in the final and all of us deserve more than that”.

In the second innings of the match Indian bowlers went through the West Indies batting line-up Jeff Dujon showed a resistance and he scored 25, but when Mohinder Amarnath’s vicious swing bowled him out Dujon was slapping the ground in pain. Kapil said, “When you play as a team, you don’t need big names to win. You need big commitment.”

But after notching up the victory Indian team was celebrating at the Lord’s dressing room till 3 am in the morning, but disappointedly there was no one to serve them the dinner.

“We were world champions who didn’t get dinner after winning the trophy. But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except that we were the best in the world,” Kapil Dev signed off.

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