The 1983 Cricket World Cup - Literature review Example

The World Cup – 1983 Order No: 194189 No. of pages: 8 Premium – 6530 If one was a good cricketer one was considered to be a good citizen. Yes,Cricket has become the mainstay of sports and undoubtedly has a strong and direct link with Indian National consciousness. In the words of Guttmann, “It is recognized that there are close links between sports and politics; and in particular between sport and national conscious”. (Guttmann A., 2003) There is a kind of collective psychology that takes place during competitive sports which help to give birth to unified identities that “can also be used to achieve political motivation”. (Ibid., p. 339 and Sengupta, 2004) Much before cricket took over from hockey as the most popular sport in India, politicians utilized this to widen their political prospects. Politicians played a major hand in the selection of the team and strongly lent their full support and in this way gained a lot of popularity. So it was no wonder that every world cup series would receive the best propaganda available. Therefore, the 1983 Cricket World Cup took place in a feverish and exciting atmosphere. It was a dream come true which had a fairy tale ending when India scored a fantastic victory over the Windies when fate dealt a lucky hand to India. This event was marked as a Red Letter day for India and was penned into the annals of India’s history as the most spectacular win that ever took place. India’s victory at the 1983 ICC Prudential World Cup is indeed the stuff dreams are made of and even more so when it became India’s dream come true. Behind the scenes a whole multitude of things took place – Historically, Socially and Politically. In this essay we are going to discuss a few of the important things that took place during that time. The 1983 Prudential Cup took place in England and was the third edition in relation to the tournament. Totally eight countries participated in this spectacular event. The matches were all played during the day and consisted of 60 overs each. After playing each other, the two top teams qualified for the finals. Group “A” consisted of England, New Zealand, Pakistan and Srilanka and Group “B” consisted of Australia, India, West Indies and Zimbabwe. India’s smart and flamboyant all – rounder, Kapil Dev led the Indian team. What was different from its predecessors was that in the preliminary rounds, the different sides played each other twice instead of once. This third World Cup was sponsored by the Prudential Assurance Company for the last time. This historical match had two great surprises – the first one was when India beat West Indies and Zimbabwe got victory over Australia in the opening round of matches, and it finally ended with the greatest surprise to top it all, when India beat West Indies again, in the final that took place at Lord’s and captured the World Cup (Prudential Cup) by stunning the giant West Indies in a massive but brilliant attack. Historical Repercussions: The ICC World Cup is a mega international championship of one -day cricket and as such extremely prestigious to all cricket lovers. The inaugural event took place in 1975 and thereafter it is conducted every four years. The first three world cups were held at England. The 1983 Prudential World Cup has gone down in the pages of history as a Red Letter Day for India because of its spectacular win over the West Indies at Lord’s in England. What was very surprising was that the Indian Captain Kapil Dev was a young and relatively new captain. Before the match, India was quoted at 66 to 1 which was not too promising. The match itself was a very elaborate affair that spanned over two weeks. There were 27 matches played in all which took place from June 9th to June 25th. Zimbabwe who reached the semi finals had qualified in the 1982 ICC Trophy, but was now playing for the first time. They had very good and experienced players who gave everyone a run for their money. The surprise win and entry into the last four by the underdogs created quite a stir in the English media and earned the Indian team the sobriquet ‘KAPIL’S DEVILS’ (Partab Ramachand, 1983) making them the darling of the media. The 1983 World Cup holds a lot of historical significance in many ways than one. One such historical moment was when Kapil Dev’s all time fantastic innings of 175 not out was not recorded that day because BBC had carried out a strike just on the same day and hence those thrilling moments were not caught on video. Another significant but distressing moment was when Shiv Sena the Hindu Nationalist group went on a rampage at the headquarters of the Indian Cricket Board and had damaged the 1983 World Cup Trophy. The victor was unmasked from the very first match played at Old Trafford which was delayed due to rain. Things did not look up for India right through the match and most people believed that it was playing an outside game. The real saving grace was Kapil’s steady runs coming in and Yashpal Sharma’s crucial 89 runs which won him the man of the match. Though the West Indies looked invincible, it had to take a Kapil and a Yashpal to change their fortunes which came to a nail – biting close on 25th June 1983 at Lords. Other historical changes that had taken place were the change of venue. England had hosted the first three tournaments consecutively but the first World Cup of 1987 became the first to be hosted outside of England. It was also in the 1987 World Cup a neutral umpire was introduced. Social Repercussions: An encore that took place at Old Trafford which naturally discomforted the West Indies shaking their morale, India was expected to defeat Zimbabwe at Leicester in a very crucial match. India promptly did so by a whole 5 wickets down. What pinched Skipper Kapil was the game played by Sunil Gavaskar. Sunny fell to Rawson with only 4 runs and when playing against West Indies on June 9th he only scored a meager 19. This began a bitter rivalry between Kapil and Gavaskar sparked off when Kapil asked Sunny to “Get your game together”. (Sports Star, 2003) The mighty Vivian Richards sad fall to Syed Kirmani – Roger Binny combo after scoring just 17, signed the fate of the West Indies who were dismissed after scoring 228 of 54.1 overs and leaving India to win by 34 runs. No one expected that India would win in the face of a fire spitting dragon such as West Indies because they had not only played all their matches excellently but won them hands down. Therefore their 34 run loss to India could be taken as a sort of “limb- loosener”. (Sportstar, 2003) This proved a bitter spoke for the West Indies who never left things to chance after that and emerged victorious in all of them. Thus facing India in the finals were the mighty West Indians. India looked ruffled and had the appearance of being knocked out of the match in no time. Things looked extremely bleak for India when Gavaskar and Kris Srikkanth got out for 0, Sandeep Patil got 1 and Mohinder Amarnath got 5. Kapil stood as a lone sentinel trying to salvage what looked to be an irreparable loss. But being the Haryanvi that he is, he proved his mettle by batting 6 sixes and 17 fours in a spectacular turn around match putting the Prudential Cup within India’s view. Finally how “Kap” stole the Cup from right under the noses of the West Indies is anyone’s guess, but certainly it is one of the most cherished moments that are clearly etched in the mind of every Indian which has made Kapil the legend that he is today. In the 1983 World Cup and there after the team used white clothes and played with a red ball; but in 1992, colored clothing was introduced and they made use of white balls. The fielding circle rules and regulations were also fine tuned that allowed only two men outside the circle during the first 15 overs. This particular competition differed from its predecessors in that the groups that played in the preliminary rounds did not play once but twice. This was done not only to increase the revenue, but also to minimize the chances of any side being eliminated because the weather played truant. Political Repercussions: The spectacular victory of India in the face of adversity which came in the form of the mighty West Indies went down in the annals of Indian history as a Red letter day. The Indian team seemed to be flying in space as they saw their captain Kapil Dev receive the very much coveted trophy from the officials. It was one of the most thrilling and joyous days for each and every Indian as they stood in patriotic solidarity savoring the success of the Indian Team with great pride. The bridge between the elite and the rest of India was very evident as the English newspaper “The Statesman”, carried a lead story on the Kanyakumari to Rajghat padyatra of Janata Party president Chandra Shekhar while the 1983 World Cup victory in cricket only merited a single-column report which appeared on page one. The media having shifted their attention towards our Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi to see what she had to say about the miracle moment at Lord’s Stadium, she was reported to having said, “India can do it” the hoardings of which were erected all across the country. Kapil and his men were invited to tea by Mrs. Gandhi and this was supposed to be the high light of our heroes welcome. But besides this fact there was an under current of political repercussions that took place after this momentous day. One of these repercussions was when Sharad Diwadkar, executive secretary of the BCCI saw himself face to face with a group of around 70 visitors who stormed into the office of Bombay Board of Control for Cricket and the leader a party legislator Shrikant Sarmalkar demanded, “You want India and Pakistan to play cricket?” to which the BCCI secretary said, “Yes”. He was met with a resounding slap to his face and thereafter the mob rushed in and ransacked the place. An eye witness said that they were frantically waving saffron flags and were armed with stumps and hockey sticks. They went on a rampage damaging office material such as furniture, fax machines and glass panels. Telephone wires were also damaged as they screamed out slogans such as “the country does not need unpatriotic people” and “Pakistan has the blood of the Kashmiri Hindus on their hands”. In the melee, the pride of our country, The Prudential Cup got damaged. The main reason for the attack on the BCCI was because they did not want the Pakistani Tour to take place. They warned them of dire consequences and told them that no security could stop them from putting a stop to the Pakistani Tour. It was indeed a disgrace and a shame that the ruling party’s MLA was heading an attack of the BCCI in broad daylight. Another of the high lights that took place after the match was that they had a reunion of the World Cup heroes which culminated in the launch of a joint venture called the “The Prudential ICICI Asset Management Company. Mr. Tucker of the Prudential Corporation Asia announced a free life insurance cover to all the 14 members of the Indian Cricket team of 1983. (Indian Express Newspapers, Bombay, 1998) Therefore the Prudential Cup of 1983 won by India is indeed a pride. It brings back sweet memories as fate changed hands. It has gone down in the history of sports as one of the most exciting matches of the twentieth century. References: When India was “The World”. Raju Bharatan, Sportstar, from the publishers of Hindu. Vol.26:: No.01:: Jan.04- 10, 2003. www.hinduonnet.com/tss/tss2601/stories/20030104001102800.htm A Guttmann, “Sport, Politics and the engaged Historian”, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 38, No. 3, 2003, p. 383. Ibid., p. 339 and Sengupta J., The International Journal of the History of sport, vol. 21, n. 2, p.586. Cricket World Cup 1983 – ICC Cricket World Cup. www.cricket-world-cup-2007.cricket.deepthi.com/world-cup-cricket-1983.html ICC Cricket World Cup www.cricket-world-cup-2007.cricket.deepthi.com/world-cup-cricket-facts.html Sena men ransack BCCI Office www.rediff.com/news/1999/jan/18bcci.htm 1983 World Cup, heroes bring cheer again (Express News Service) May 4th 1998. www.indianexpress.com/res/web/ple/ie/daily/1998o5o4/12450474.html 1983, Lord of the Lords www.sify.com/khel/wc_fullstory.php?id=14400451 History of World Cup Cricket www.mapsofworld.com/cricket/world/-cup-2007/history/world-cup-history.html Read More