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Win proved India was a power in ODIs: Gavaskar

G. Viswanath

Mumbai: Sunil Gavaskar executed a few lovely straight drives in the Prudential World Cup ‘83 semifinal against England to give a rousing start for India chasing England’s 216. In the final Gavaskar showed a safe pair of hands at slip, taking nicks that came off the bat of Larry Gomes and Malcolm Marshall.

In a chat with The Hindu, Gavaskar says that India’s World Cup win in 1983 told the cricketing world that it was force to reckon with in limited overs cricket.

Lord’s, 25-6-1983... a memorable day for Indian cricket. How many times have you recalled those moments, perhaps on every June 25th surely?

Well may be not every June 25th, but whenever the World Cup comes along then the mind certainly goes back to that day. Life is such a leveller for if June 25th is such a happy day to recollect, the 26th is a sad one for that’s the day Ekki (Eknath Solkar) passed away.

From a point of view of an Indian team’s performance in England and in the World Cup, it came 12 years after India’s famous victory at the Oval and the first series victory. You were in both the teams, double delight... can one say...?

Both wins were significant. The Test wins against West Indies and England made the team believe in itself more than ever before and the 1983 win sent the message that India was now a power in limited overs cricket too.

Many say India became a confident side after the one-day international win against the West Indies at Berbice two months before the World Cup.

Yes, for till then we had not ever stretched the West Indies, leave aside beating them.

The presence of all-rounders in the 1983 team ought to have been a major factor

All-rounders always give balance to the team and flexibility to the captain. We had a major batsman Jimmy (Mohinder Amarnath) playing another role as a bowler. We also had the best of them all, skipper Kapil Dev.

Kapil Dev’s catch of Viv Richards, but Sandhu started it all in defence of a small total in 60 overs

It is a cliche that analysts use all the time that if early wickets are taken then defending a small total is possible. So the wicket of Greenidge and Haynes were important, but Viv was taking the game away from us and Kapil’s stupendous catch turned the game in our favour.

Kim Hughes said before the event that India could be the dark horse

Kim had played against us in 1980 in Australia where India actually started to take the one-day game more seriously and had seen the potential of the team so he must have said that.

And then drawing first blood at Old Trafford against the West Indies. It must have made Lloyd’s team somewhat vulnerable...they must have spotted the real challenger

Yes, that comfortable gave us loads of confidence and would have made Lloyd’s team look a bit more vulnerable.

What’s No. 1 for you... Chandra’s spell and Ekki’s catching in 1971 or every aspect of 1983 because after this win, India (under your captaincy) won in Australia too, the B&H championship?

Chandra’s spell and Ekki’s catching showed we had come of age as a Test playing country. The World Cup win transformed the game in India because it showed that matches can be won by unorthodox methods.

Overall how would you sum up the ‘Summer of 1983’ in England?

The summer of ’83 in England was memorable for it was a team that played good touch cricket and enjoyed itself on and off the field.

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