This Day, That Year

Year: 1983 Location: India

Jeetendra and Sreedevi launch a franchise model of song-and-dance dramas where men are always in white menswear, and women in Apsara-like costumes. Remember Thathiyya thathiyya O O! Gundallu….Gundallu

Fire rages in the states of Assam and Punjab in proportions never seen and heard before.

Phoolan Devi, the famed (?) dacoit surrenders enroute a life of dignity (remember she became an MP)!

Amidst all this, the Prudential Cup and the triumph happened! What happened that day?

On that day (June 25), the national cricket team lifted the highest prize in the sport, the World Cup—we are celebrating what is arguably the greatest sporting triumph of the nation in 2008.

Date: June 25, 1983 Venue: Lord’s

Pre-tournament no-hopers, India were playing two-time champions West Indies for the greatest prize, the Prudential World Cup. It was the final and the whole nation was watching with excitement. I remember in school, we were even asked to watch the match and come prepared on Monday morning for an essay.

The match began at 1045 London time (1515 IST) with earnest when the Indian openers, Gavaskar and Srikanth walked into the middle to face the fearsome battery of fast bowlers, Roberts, Garner, Holding, and Marshall. In the fifth over, tragedy strikes when Gavaskar edges Roberts to Dujon. The repair job was undertaken by an unlikely duo, the Mad Max clone Srikanth and the then best player of fast bowling, Amarnath. Couple of shots from Srikanth’s blade stands out in memory even today – the square drive on bent knees off Roberts and a pull shot again off Roberts for a huge six. Normal service for West Indies was restored when Holding sent Amarnath’s stumps flying and Marshall trapped Srikanth in front of the stumps for a well-played 38—incidentally the highest score of the match. Yashpal Sharma, the hero of the semi-finals followed them to the pavilion soon after and when lunch was taken at 1300 London time (1730 IST), India was 99/4. When play resumed 40 minutes later, lusty hitting from Sandeep Patil and some lower-order resistance pushed the score to 183 all out.

India 183 all out and West Indies 184/1 (36 overs) – This was a prediction during the innings break. Most of us felt that even though we had come this far, it would only fair that a team of real class such as West Indies won the World Cup. Those were the times, we had won precious little- coming to a final was considered a great achievement!

When the West Indians began their chase, nobody could imagine things that unfolded over the next four hours. Like in the Indian innings, tragedy struck when Greenidge shouldered arms to a seemingly-innocuous in swinger from Balwinder Sandhu. In walked Viv Richards and the situation was tailor-made for a destructive player like him. He began attacking the bowlers and all of us felt that the match would be over in 30 overs. He was in such a dominant form. But probably he played a shot too many. He pulled one off Madan Lal and ended up top-edging it. What happened was probably the defining moment of Indian cricket. The top-edge was sailing harmlessly when the Indian captain ran 25 yards backwards to take the catch. The great man was gone. Soon Lloyd was gone too. I still remember the words of Richie Benaud from the commentary box. “West Indies 66/5 and in complete disarray.” So it was. When tea was taken at 1715 London time (2145 IST), West Indies were 76/5 and a mountain to climb!

When play resumed 15 minutes later, 76/5 became 76/6 when Kirmani picked up a brilliant catch to send back Bacchus. They often say that no match is won till the last ball is bowled and last wicket is taken. Jeff Dujon and Malcolm Marshall began a repair job and each time they scored a run, the heart beats of the Indian players rose and the hopes of the fans receded. Then a miracle happened. Mohinder Amarnath dismissed a well-set Dujon and soon they were all out for 140.

It was midnight in India when the last wicket fell and it was Diwali Redux. Never before have celebrations been as wild and frenzied as that night. A new religion—cricket was born that night. It’s been 25 years since that momentous day and my heart swells with pride when I watch the clippings. There may be other victories in cricket, and probably other sports. But I dare say that this is the greatest sporting victory yet!

Match Scorecard

India v West Indies @ Lord's, London
25 June 1983

Toss: West Indies (field)
Umpires: HD Bird, BJ Meyer
Match Result: India won by 43 runs

India

Sunil Gavaskar c Jeff Dujon b Andy Roberts 2

Kris Srikkanth lbw b Malcolm Marshall 38

Mohinder Amarnath b Michael Holding 26

Yashpal Sharma c sub b Larry Gomes 11

Sandeep Patil c Larry Gomes b Joel Garner 27

Kapil Dev c Michael Holding b Larry Gomes 15

Kirti Azad c Joel Garner b Andy Roberts 0

Roger Binny c Joel Garner b Andy Roberts 2

Madan Lal b Malcolm Marshall 17

Syed Kirmani b Michael Holding 14

Balwinder Sandhu not out 11

FOW 1-2 (Sunny Gavaskar), 2-59 (Kris Srikkanth), 3-90 (Mohinder Amarnath), 4-92 (Yashpal Sharma), 5-110 (Kapil Dev), 6-111 (Kirti Azad), 7-130 (Roger Binny), 8-153 (Sandeep Patil), 9-161 (Madan Lal), 183 (Syed Kirmani).

Extras 5b, 5lb, 9w, 1nb, 0pen) 20

Total (54.4 ovs) 183 all out

Bowling

Andy Roberts 10 3 32 3

Joel Garner 12 4 24 1

Malcolm Marshall 11 1 24 2

Michael Holding 9.4 2 26 2

Larry Gomes 11 1 49 2

Sir Viv Richards 1 0 8 0

West Indies

Gordon Greenidge b Balwinder Sandhu 1

Desmond Haynes c Roger Binny b Madan Lal 13

Sir Viv Richards c Kapil Dev b Madan Lal 33

Clive Lloyd c Kapil Dev b Roger Binny 8

Larry Gomes c Sunny Gavaskar b Madan Lal 5

Faoud Bacchus c Syed Kirmani b Balwinder Sandhu 8

Jeff Dujon b Mohinder Amarnath 25

Malcolm Marshall c Sunny Gavaskar b Mohinder Amarnath 18

Andy Roberts lbw b Kapil Dev 4

Joel Garner not out 5

Michael Holding lbw b Mohinder Amarnath 6

FOW 1-5 (Gordon Greenidge), 2-50 (Desmond Haynes), 3-57 (Sir Viv Richards), 4-66 (Larry Gomes), 5-66 (Clive Lloyd), 6-76 (Faoud Bacchus), 7-119 (Jeff Dujon), 8-124 (Malcolm Marshall), 9-126 (Andy Roberts), 140 (Michael Holding).

Extras 0b, 4lb, 10w, 0nb, 0pen) 14

Total (52 ovs) 140 all out

Bowling

Kapil Dev 11 4 21 1

Balwinder Sandhu 9 1 32 2

Madan Lal 12 2 31 3

Roger Binny 10 1 23 1

Mohinder Amarnath 7 0 12 3

Kirti Azad 3 0 7 0

Modi Entertainment் Network

I read a piece during the weekend where the Champions League was launched with great fanfare. Two teams each from the professional leagues from India, England, Australia, and South Africa. This, Mr.Modi will want us to believe, will be on the lines of the Champions League in football.

Suresh Menon has covered this issue well in his Cricinfo piece. What will Shane Warne do if Hampshire joins Rajasthan Royal? Will he turn up for both? Sounds ridiculous, but it may happen if Mr.Modi wishes! That will happen as long as IPL is professional and the others are not. Because ideally professional clubs will have the exclusivity angle covered, which would mean that both Hampshire and Rajasthan Royal cannot play Warne. The owners of Royals are no fools to allow Warne to play for any other team in the League. And there are more instances like this! Graeme Smith, Mathew Hayden, Muralitharan, and few others! So you will end up with a pretty lop-sided league, where six out of the eight teams will field less than their strongest teams for reasons other than cricketing matters!

Another important angle is the ICL. There are litigations round the corner if Mr.Modi bulldozes his way and disallows the ICL players from playing in the League. I think he can't stop that happening! If Lou Vincent is allowed to play for Lancashire, it is assumed that the club will field them in the League as well, if it qualifies. If he plays in the League, can we assume that BCCI/ICC is legitimizing ICL? The BCCI officials pat themselves on the back for 'professionalizing the sport.’ (What does that mean?) Banning ICL is nothing but plain 'dadagiri.'

But strange things have happened in this sport in the last month. Maybe this adds to the list………

My better half, the Smart Alec that she is, pointed out that she’d read somewhere recently that Modi in his early days ran an outfit called Modi Entertainment Network (MEN). ‘Isn’t this circus also part of MEN?’ she asked. I smiled almost to suggest, ‘You couldn’t more right.’

Clown and the Tiger

This morning, I was reading a piece by Amit Varma, The IPL reveals India's bench strength. This was not the first piece I have been reading on similar lines—some of them by notable cricket writers. I asked myself—Am I missing something? How can the IPL tell you about the bench strength? In that case, have I understood the word 'bench strength' correctly?

These guys must be joking, I felt. How can IPL tell you about the bench strength? When Tevez isn't part of the Manchester United eleven, that is bench strength. When Lionel Messi is a reserve in the Argentinean team, it tells you about the bench strength of the team! How can a Gony and a Dinda tell you about the bench strength of the Indian team for the longer version based on some festival cricket? Probably, the IPL or T20 can give you an indication of their talents, which they need to take forward to do well in the international arena. This still doesn't add up to the bench strength of the Indian team!

How can a four-over spell in a domestic festival match give an indication of a bowler's capability at the higher level? Just because a clown tames a tiger in a circus, you can't make him a forest ranger, can you? Similarly, how can an innings of 40 in an IPL match tell you that an opener can face a Steyn or a Lee on a bouncy wicket? The ideal way is to test these guys in a four-day environment and see if they have picked up anything from the Pontings or McGraths or Warnes. If the players come up trumps and force their way into the Indian team, then you can probably mutter the word 'bench strength' (not say it)!

But I get this uneasy feeling—that our selectors will pick a team based on the IPL performances—too often have they ignored their instincts and gone by public sentiment (anybody?). Probably, bench strength means that players are good enough to sit on the bench and not good enough to play at the highest level—I hope not.

Curtain Down on Vijay Tendulkar!

Vijay Tendulkar no more—An end of an era, said the newspapers last Tuesday.

I first heard of Tendulkar when I watched Sinhasan in school. Today's generation must note that Sinhasan was a classic Marathi movie of the seventies directed by Jabbar Patel. It is probably the finest political drama ever made on cinema. Political dramas can be boring and predictable beyond a point. But not Sinhasan—it was gripping and had a feel of realism around it.

As I grew up, I saw more of Tendulkar's works on cinema—Manthan and Nishant from the Benegal stable, Aakrosh and Ardh Satya from Govind Nihalani, Saamna and Umbartha by Jabbar Patel—each a riveting drama of human conflicts. I have all of them in my DVD collection. Having revisited them again, I dare say that he was India's finest screen writer. In the coming days, I intend to watch Aakrosh and Aakreit and celebrate! I do regret that I have not seen his celebrated plays, barring Kanyadaan, which I thought was decently done by Lilette Dubey's team. I am seriously hunting for those DVDs! Anyone?

There are few things that stand out in memory!

There was liberalism written all over him. This is pretty evident from the way he created situations and characters in his work. I am often disappointed with 'liberals'—most of them are imposters who find it ‘cool’ to be ‘liberal’—that's not the point! What is important is that you need not just listen to Pink Floyd, follow Obama vs. Clinton debates, and profess atheism to be liberal. Tendulkar showed that you could be an iconoclast without having to think in English!

He was a strong personality. Some of the subjects he dealt with in his movies were women empowerment, rural awakening, and political awareness. Remember the last scene in Nishant where the entire village rises in rebellion against their employers, the village landlords, who have nothing but brutality and avarice in their CVs. Remember the female protagonist in Umbartha, who stakes her marriage to an affluent family to work in an asylum. They tell you that his characters were strong people, much like himself!

Can there be another Tendulkar? Rather, is there quality theater happening in India? No. But that discussion is for another day. Not today. Today, we’ll take a bow to someone who rewrote traditional theater in India! Tendulkar, RIP!

Parakh

I saw Parakh last night. Released in 1960, Parakh was directed by the great Bimal Roy. For today's generation, please note that Bimal Roy was one of our greatest movie makers, and he made classics such as Do Bigha Zameen, Devdas, Parineeta (old), Biraj Bahu, Madhumati, Sujata, and Bandini—each movie a trailblazer!

Parakh is a story set in a village where the do-gooder postmaster receives a cheque of 500, 000 INR(pretty huge amount in the fifties!). Instead of keeping it for himself, he calls a meeting of the village elders to decide on the rightful recipient. The meeting ends with a call for an election where people would decide on the rightful recipient. The rest of the movie shows how each of the village elder takes the extra effort to please the villagers—it’s quite funny at times. The movie has enough interesting turns till the end. What keeps you transfixed is the setting—it’s a village in the early fifties of a young independent India, grappling with freedom, development and above all a nascent democracy. The village settings with the various characters actually provide a wonderful backdrop to metaphorize democracy.

The star of the movie is its storyline. I am not talking about Bimalda—the movie showcases his obvious craft! Watch out for an effortless performance by Motilal, and an equally refreshing one from an almost-unrecognizable Sadhana. There are some gems composed by Salil Choudhury. Worth a dekko, it transports you to an era when India was coming to terms with freedom, democracy, and development. I feel the movie is a must-see because we now tend to take these very issues for granted!