No sporting event in history had a jaw-dropping effect on a nation’s psyche as the 1983 world cup. Kapil Dev and his men lifted their first Prudential cup on the Lord’s balcony after beating the much favoured West Indies. They aroused passion in a nation and its millions of people struggling to find their way in a post-colonial economy.
In many ways, this victory of the Indian team composed of players from different socio-economic backgrounds on a world stage reflected the aspirations of a nation and its people who wanted to compete and win globally in every facet.
How Cricket Came To Dominate India
In a country where hockey previously dominated the hearts of people due to its glorious exploits at the Olympics, now people of India had another sport that they could cherish and be madly in love with. Victory at Lord’s meant India was a force to reckon with in cricket as previously no one took the Indian team seriously on the world stage.
When India went into the 1983 world cup, no one spoke of Kapil’s team highly, with only a solitary win against East Africa in the previous two editions of the world cup. As a result, India entered the tournament as underdogs.
As expected, India’s world cup campaign was topsy turvy to begin with. However, things were about to change for Kapil and his men. It was a match against Zimbabwe where India was looking down the barrel at 17 for five when Kapil Dev walked in and played perhaps the most valuable innings of the 20th century.
Kapil’s 175 not only turned the tide for India’s world cup campaign that day, but it changed the future of cricket in India. The magic at Lord’s on 25 June, 1983, sparked an obsession in India. It fueled an enthusiasm so great that it changed the game forever.
Cricket, overnight, became a new cult for the people of India, and cricketers became Gods. There was perhaps no street, no nukkad left in the country that did not have Kapil and Sunil Gavaskar waiting to repeat the magic.
For every family belonging to the middle and lower-middle-class income group, cricket offered an opportunity to fulfil their dreams. In other words, for growing kids and their families, cricket became this big ticket for achieving success.
Laying The Foundation For The Future
In the years preceding ’83, the Indian team became a solid opponent, asserting their dominance on the world stage. For the cricket board in India, the win at Lord’s helped in creating the biggest market, eventually making the Board the richest in the world.
Players like Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, etc., from the ’83 team, and later Tendulkar, Dhoni and Virat Kohli became the global ambassadors of the game. Dhoni led India to two more titles, winning the 2007 inaugural T20 World Cup and the second One Day World Cup in 2011.
The 2007 T20 victory started the biggest T20 league in India globally. IPL became this new market where foreign and local talents could display their skills and earn big money. The league became the breeding ground for younger talents. It became a place where talent meets opportunity.
IPL gave economic stability to numerous families in India. The league gave the power to middle and lower-middle-class Indians’ eyes to dream.
The global supremacy of Indian cricket that we see today would not have been possible without Kapil and his men. To put it more aptly, victory in ’83 turned once a slave country into the masters of the game, giving a nation and its people confidence to reclaim their identity on the world stage.