FROM THE MAGAZINE: India had won just one game across the first two World Cups, but the shape of world cricket was to change in June 1983. SCOTT OLIVER interviewed key protagonists from India's miraculous World Cup victory.
This is an abridged version of our monthly 'Eyewitness' feature for the Summer 2023 issue of The Cricketer. To read the full article, grab a copy of the magazine by clicking here.
Difficult as it is to imagine today, heading into the 1983 World Cup the bookies had India as 66/1 outsiders. And with some justification, as they had won just one game – against East Africa – in the first two tournaments.
As it transpired, it would be a life-changing month.
Balwinder Sandhu (India seamer) We lost all the warm-ups because we'd come from flat wickets in Pakistan and the West Indies. They were just practice games where we tried to find how to go about it in English conditions.
They didn't affect the group. The best part in that World Cup was we didn't overthink things.
Madan Lal (India seamer) We never had any pressure at all because nobody gave us a chance. But we had a team that wanted to do well for the country.
And we had beaten West Indies in Guyana a few months earlier, the first ODI we had won against them, so that was something to hold on to, especially playing them in England where the ball moves around.
Roger Binny (India allrounder) Things started to change with the victory over West Indies. A different feeling. There wasn't much confidence before the World Cup started.
I don't think anyone – except maybe Kapil Dev – thought we could do anything.
With Zimbabwe defeating Australia in the other Group B opener, things had suddenly opened up. India followed up with victory over Zimbabwe, then hit a bump in the road: a thumping loss to the Australians and a marginally less heavy defeat to a bruised West Indies, Dilip Vengsarkar having his jaw broken by Malcolm Marshall.
The fifth game, against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells, now carried real jeopardy. Win, and they would be masters of their own destiny; lose, and the final group game against Australia was effectively a quarter-final.
Inside the first hour, India had fallen to 9 for 4, then 17 for 5. At which point, the ultimate captain's knock...
Madan Lal At 17 for 5, the dressing room was pindrop silent. Everybody was stunned. Indian supporters coming to the game heard the score and turned around and went home.
Then some of them came back when they heard Kapil had made a hundred! That's what sport teaches you: never, ever give up in life.
Kapil Dev's incredible 175 not out against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells [Getty Images]
Kirti Azad (India offspinner) I've never seen so much destruction. Scoring 175 not out from 17 for 5, out of 260-odd? Incredible.
I can remember him hitting sixes over the corrugated roofs and the ball rolling back making the ta-ta-ta-ta-ta sound, as if it was Diwali going off.
Ayaz Memon (broadcaster) I rate it as the best ODI innings ever. Why? You just have to look at the situation India were in, and the fact that Kapil wasn't a top-order batsman.
That innings changed the course of the match, of the tournament for India, of Indian cricket as a whole, and therefore cricket as a whole. So for the excruciating circumstances and the impact it had, I don't see a better innings than this.
A heavy defeat to Australia in the last group game would still have brought elimination, but a 118-run victory sent them buoyantly to a semi-final against the hosts in Manchester, who were perhaps a little overconfident ahead of their chastening six-wicket defeat.
Azad On the eve of the game, we switched on the television and saw the two local Lancashire players, Graeme Fowler and Paul Allott, giving an interview with the BBC and not say anything about the game against India in the semi-finals.
They're talking about how they're going to tackle the West Indies in the final.
Memon The one thing the Indian players all still say is that the English press treated them disdainfully from the time they landed to the time they went into the match at Old Trafford.
They said they wanted to teach the press a lesson.
Madan Lal We didn't have any pressure. We thought that by reaching the semi-final we'd done very well. Nobody had given us a chance.
England were expecting to get to a final and all the pressure was on them. We were much more relaxed.
That underdog relaxation was carried into a Lord's final that few beyond Kapil Dev thought they would make.
Madan Lal At the team meeting before the final, Kapil just said 'go and do your best'. We decided we were going to bat first if we won the toss.
We thought that if West Indies bat first they might score a lot of runs and put us out of the game. We thought scoreboard pressure in a final would be to our advantage.
But Clive Lloyd won the toss and put us in, which was a good thing for us.
Sandhu The best part was that in the team meetings the senior players did not make the game look too big. It was a big game, fine. Everyone knew it was a big game.
Kapil realised that when the team is highly motivated, why do you want to give them a lecture about going out there to fight, fight, fight. No need. The team was motivated, you don't want to make them over‑motivated.
Binny It wasn't a good wicket for an ODI, especially a final. It was green and a bit damp. The ball was swinging around.
Having said that, that's what won us the game. It suited our bowling better than West Indies.
India win the final [Getty Images]
India grafted to 183, the last three wickets adding 53 as the glut of allrounders again paid dividends, just as it had against Zimbabwe. A sub-par score, perhaps, but it was runs on the board.
Azad There was no doubt somewhere in our mind we thought it was a small score and an easy chase for West Indies. But we felt within us that we could rise to the occasion.
Irrespective of what the score is, we are going to fight. Tooth and nail. We are not going to let it go.
Binny We weren't happy with our total. We had hoped to get up to 220 or more. That was always a fighting score in England. We had a long time to sit back and ponder at the interval.
Kapil said: "We've reached this far, let's go and give it 100 per cent. We've got nothing to lose."
That woke us up a little bit. The confidence came back and we got a wicket straight away, which calmed us down.
After Sandhu had opened the door – setting up Gordon Greenidge with outswingers before an inswinger was fatally left – came Lal's three-wicket burst (Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes and Larry Gomes) then the Mohinder Armanath heist.
The mighty Windies were losing blood. India now had to keep their emotions under control.
Madan Lal Viv Richards went after me. I always liked that, because then you have a chance. Maybe he was a bit too aggressive, but a great batsman always thinks like that: like they can destroy the bowling. That's why he was the best.
Sandhu There is a thin line between confidence and overconfidence and Viv sometimes had an arrogance about the way he played.
I saw the ball go up, up from mid-off. Kapil was such a good catcher that he went straight to where the ball would have landed down. A straight line.
Me and Kapil always have the argument: he says my wicket was the turning point of the match and I say his catch was.
A stand between Jeff Dujon and Marshall threatened to get West Indies back in the game, before a spell of 7-0-12-3 from man of the match Amarnath snuffed it out.
The seemingly impossible had happened, and things would never again be the same for India.
Madan Lal When we got back to the dressing room it was quite quiet. We couldn't believe we had won the World Cup. We have done something that had not been expected of us so there was a little bit of shock there.
But after five or 10 minutes then suddenly you realise that you have and the excitement started to come out.
Memon I walked up to Kapil Dev in the sponsors' tent and said, "Well done, skipper". He was obviously cock-a-hoop. He said to me, in Hindi, "We've shown everybody!" He was just totally ecstatic.
Kapil Dev and Mohinder Amarnath with the trophy [Getty Images]
The impact would resonate around the world and down the decades, and is still being felt today.
Madan Lal People remember us from 1983 more than the 2011 World Cup, which was a great team. Everybody still stops to ask us about it.
People say, "You have shown the way". 1983 was us growing up, but credit must also go to the people who brought the 1987 World Cup to India. That really cemented it.
Memon Cricket had always been the biggest sport in India. Winning the World Cup, a multi-nation tournament in which we were no-hopers, gave it an astounding amount of leverage.
I knew immediately it was a 'Big Bang' situation for India.
Sandhu This was a turning point in Indian sports and the Indian psyche. We started believing that we could do well on the big stage. That’s why everyone remembers us.
People will come and tell me their story of watching the game on television, what they were doing. That was the kind of impact it had on the mind of all Indians.
That's why people are still talking about it, why it's remembered and cherished by everyone. It had such a big impact.
Everyone over 50 today, their self-esteem went up that day.
Inside our Summer 2023 issue of The Cricketer magazine, you'll also find:
With The Hundred dominating the next month, George Dobell and Simon Wilde debate the ECB's pet project in our Summer issue. Plus:
- Barney Ronay: is Chris Woakes England's greatest home allrounder?
- David Gower likes Bazball but asks for control to the risk-taking
- Vic Marks says everything is working against English spinners
- Mike Selvey claims ‘bowl-and-hope’ at Lord’s sold spectators short
- Nick Friend explores how England Women are closing the gap
- Tanya Aldred reflects on how far women’s cricket has come
- Nick Howson explains why The Hundred has a hard task this August
- George Dobell looks at the ICEC Report and West Indies’ woe
- Nick Compton on living in his grandfather’s shadow
- Comedian Geoff Norcott tells us why he loves cricket
- Stu Forster is the latest famous photographer in our photo series
And much, much more...
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