India's first ICC World Cup Win turns 35 years today!

mid-day celebrates Kapil Dev & Co's Prudential World Cup victory of June 25, 1983 through some anecdotal gems

No one really gave India a chance to win the 1983 World Cup? Not quite. Then Australian captain Kim Hughes in an interview to a Mumbai journalist counted India as a contender. Hughes felt Kapil Dev's team were the dark horses of the competition.

Madan's plea
S Madan Lal, who lured Viv Richards to pull one to offer Kapil Dev a difficult catch at deep mid-wicket, was going to be taken off the attack but he pleaded with his captain for another crack. Madan Lal ended up claiming three West Indian wickets and his 17 with the bat shouldn't be forgotten.

Monkey off Viv's back
On a recent trip to Mumbai, Sir Viv Richards told us how delighted he was when MS Dhoni led India to their 2011 World Cup win because he was fed up of people asking him about how his dismissal led to India's first World Cup win in 1983. "The monkey is off my back now," said Richards.

Greenidge, no fluke
Balvinder Singh Sandhu, who famously claimed the first wicket of the West Indies innings - Gordon Greenidge for one - also dismissed the dangerous Barbadian in India's opening game of the World Cup at Manchester where he had Greenidge bowled for 24.

Farokh's holiday call
Farokh Engineer, who was commentating on the India v West Indies World Cup final couldn't control his emotions when Mohinder Amarnath trapped last man Michael Holding leg before. "Give them a holiday, Mrs Gandhi, give them a holiday," he yelled on air, urging the then PM to declare a holiday for the Indians.

Andy's nightmare
Andy Roberts kicked off the World Cup final by getting Sunil Gavaskar to snick one to Jeff Dujon behind the wickets and later sent back Kirti Azad and Roger Binny. However, he couldn't rescue West Indies with the bat. On a trip to India in January 2016, Roberts addressed a gathering at the CCI where the host chatted with him about the World Cups of 1975, 1979. As the compere was about to bring up 1983, Roberts exclaimed, "Now don't get there." The CK Nayudu Banquet Hall at CCI cracked up.

There's room for everyone
With so many ticketless Indians at Lord's, there were some who managed to get into the ground in the Indian team's coach and then scattered themselves once the bus stopped for the players to dropped. By the way, among the many spectators was Dilip Sardesai's son Rajdeep, who was playing club cricket in England at that time. Among the Indian spectators was former Test player Yajurvindra Singh, who left the final when the West Indies were on top.

West Indian tears
Obviously, the West Indies camp was shattered by the loss, but there were also tears. When mid-day met pacer Winston Davis at his UK home in 2011, he spoke about how "grown up men" were weeping in the dressing room at Lord's on June 25, 1983. Davis, who didn't make the playing XI in that game, didn't name the weeping players though. Davis had claimed 7-51 vs Oz earlier in the tournament.

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