Rewind to 25th June 1983: Celebrating 30 years of India's first World Cup win

Kapil Dev against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup

I was not alive in 1983, but my father was 16 years old back then. One of the 1 million Indians to have watched the first ever World Cup victory for Team India. Television was newly introduced in India and most of the lower middle-class families couldn’t afford it  in those days. Fortunately they had a radio and so my father. Kapil Dev’s 175 was not broadcasted by the BBC as there was some kind of ban on them but it was lifted by the time of the finals.

In Hindi there is a saying, “Baap jo beta ko sikhata hain, chahe woh 40 yaa 50 saal ka kyun na ho jaaaye, kaabhi nahi bhulta.” It means: Whatever father teaches to his child, the child never forgets it throughout his lifetime. You can say the same is the case with me. My father is the one who introduced me to cricket and he gave me a present on my 5th birthday that is very important to me.

You may have watched the highlights of the 1983 final between India and West Indies on Star Cricket, but they never show it ball-by-ball. I have the audio tape (now converted into CD too), which was recorded on the night of 25 June 1983.  Yes, you are right. The audio tape contains the ball-by-ball commentary in English as well as the Bengali version of the final between Kapil Dev and his men against the mighty Caribbeans, who were on their way to lift their 3rd consecutive World Cup.

Those were the days of the longer format of One Day Internationals. White flannels, fierce red balls and 120 overs of play i.e. 60 overs a side. As I have heard from my father, in the finals, India were bowled out for a mere total of 183 runs from 54.4 overs and Viv Richards launched carnage on the Indian bowlers.

West Indies were favourites to win the match and seal the World title for the 3rd consecutive time but Mohinder Amarnath had other plans. First he scored a painstaking 26 runs from 80 balls (26 runs were many in those days in terms of Indian batting) and then starred with the ball to remove Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding and Jeff Dujon after Madan Lal had removed the very dangerous Viv Richards. Actually, it was Kapil Dev who pulled of a stunner to send Richards back.

This victory meant a lot for Indians back home as India rarely won a match in those days and this win announced India’s arrival in cricket at the World Stage.

Stats Alert: Kapil Dev was the highest run-scorer for India in the tournament with 303 runs from 8 innings with H.S. of 175*. Rogers Binny was the highest wicket taker of the tournament with 18 wickets at an average of 18.66. Out of the 8 matches India played in the tournament, they won 6 and lost 2 matches.