The Tribune - Spectrum
 

Sunday, February 9, 2003		 Lead Article

The 1983 Indian cricket curry:
Give me the bits-and-pieces players any day

The fancy averages of the present Indian batsmen don't impress me one bit. Not one player in Kapil's team had an average touching 40. But they had hunger. They had the spirit and the self-belief to beat the best in the game. And they did it with remarkable ease, recalls L. H. Naqvi.

Let's give Kapil Dev another round of applause for making the average Indian start believing in the Indian team
Let's give Kapil Dev another round of applause
for making the average Indian start 
believig in the Indian team

WHAT has Arthur Wharton got do with World Cup cricket? Nothing really. He was probably the world's first black professional footballer and 100 yards world-record holder. He was also, presumably, the first African to play professional cricket for Yorkshire and Lancashire leagues. While Wharton was beating the best on the tracks and fields of Britain, the people of the continent of his birth were being reviled as lesser human beings. He died a penniless coal-miner and his grave remained unmarked until 1997.

He was a sporting contemporary of K. S. Ranjitsinhji, who used the cricket bat to produce magic and poetry. Why is that the name of Ranji was not obliterated from the game of cricket? Why was there no one in the sporting fraternity to get Wharton his due as a supreme sportsman? Ironically, both the legendary players were labelled by British sports commentators as "coloured". The deeds of Ranji could not, perhaps, be ignored because of his aristocratic background. But Wharton was not born even with a wooden spoon.

Sorry for the diversion. I came across the fascinating life of Wharton while surfing the Net for information that I could nick on that glorious summer of 1983 when Indian cricket without notice reached the pinnacle of glory. Wharton set me thinking about the odds that the non-White cricket-playing nations had to face to take the game to a point where the dominance of the coloured teams cannot be wished away.

There is still racism in the game. Let us make no mistake about that. Wharton has somewhat changed the complexion of the write-up that was primarily meant to relive that glorious moment when India stunned the cricketing world by humiliating the game's super-heroes from the Caribbean islands on the hallowed ground of the Lord's.

First let me quickly dispose off certain misconceptions associated with the achievements of the team in the World Cup. One is about the host team never having won the trophy. What about the final between Sri Lanka and Australia in Lahore? Wasn't Sri Lanka, along with India and Pakistan, the co-hosts of the 1996 edition of the championship? Remember PILCOM, the three-nation coordination committee that supervised the arrangements? So if South Africa wins the 2003 World Cup, technically it will not be the first instance of the host walking away with the cake. A "coloured" team from the sub-continent has already done it.

I would also like to draw the attention of those "superior" teams to the fact the first three editions of the World Cup, that were all incidentally played on British soil, were won by coloured teams—twice by the West Indies and once by India. And in 1992, on Australia's equally White soil Pakistan came from nowhere to beat England under the inspired leadership of Imran Khan. South Africa is not technically White, although because of the policy of apartheid it has yet to produce Black players that could compare with the legends from the West Indies. So the challenge before England, Australia and New Zealand is to win the game's most prestigious trophy on their home soil. What superiority are they talking about if they have failed to beat the coloured teams on the four occasions when the tournament was held on White territory?

Wharton has somewhat changed my perception of the 1983 final between the mighty West Indies and lowly India. It was the only instance of two "coloured" teams playing the final of the World Cup on White soil. In 1992, Imran Khan's team beat England in Australia to lift the trophy and in 1996, Sri Lanka stunned the much superior Australian team. The credit should go to Arjuna Rantunga for planning what proved to be the surprise element of the 1996 edition of the tournament. The slogs in the first 15 overs simply left the opponents out of breath.

But the summer of 1983 will always hold a special place in the hearts of lore of most Indians. India had come from virtually nowhere. They came close to losing to Zimbabwe before Kapil, who led the team superbly throughout the tournament, played that innings of 175. It was considered an inconsequential game by the television channels. So that wonderful knock will have to be relived through stills and the written word.

 


It was indeed a memorable summer for Kapil's Devils. The writing on the wall was clear all along. But since India did not have a reputation of having done well in the earlier editions, the challenge from it was ignored by the pundits of the game. Forget the final. The Indians, as things later unfolded, were to cause a double upset that June. India was placed in Group B along with favourites, West Indies, Australia and the ICC Trophy Champions, Zimbabwe. It had already made history in the course of playing the league fixtures by becoming the first team to beat the West Indies in any World Cup match since 1975. That achievement itself was worth writing about in letters of gold. Writing? The best brains simply ignored the warning.

The Indians had reason to be delirious with joy on having become the first team in World Cup history to beat the giants of the game. However, as if to prove that the victory against Clive Lloyd's Invincibles was not a fluke they plotted the downfall of England in the semi-final. After restricting the "second favourites" to a modest score of 213 in 60 overs. Mohinder Amarnath bowled an amazing spell of 12 overs in which he gave only 27 runs and took two vitals wickets. The Indians reached the target with ease thanks to a polished 61 by Yashpal Sharma and a sizzling 51 by Sandip Patil.

And now ladies and gentlemen let us move to the Mecca of cricket for the final of the 1983 World Cup that was billed as a contest between David and Goliath. But this time the wise ones placed their money on Goliath overlooking what David had done to him in the league stage. But don't blame the pundits only. Look at the teams. It was clearly a mismatch. C. G. Greenidge and D. L. Haynes were the best opening pair in the business. They were followed by the one and only Vivian Richards and the only and only Clive Lloyd. The presence of King Richard and Panther Lloyd made the best teams break into a cold sweat. Logically, a combination of any of the top four players should have helped the West Indies beat the daylights out of India. Forget Larry Gomes, S. F. Bacchus and Jeff Dujon. But move further down and you will spot four more reasons for any rival team wanting to take the next flight to safety. Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Michael Holding are names that are taken with respect by batsmen who have never had the misfortune to face them.

And look at the Indian line-up. Sunil Gavaskar could never comprehend the basics of the one-day game. Just mention the 36 he made in a 60-over World Cup game, without losing his wicket, to make him want to hide behind a fig leaf. The secret strength of the team was in the bits-and-pieces abilities of the players that followed him. Imagine the bits and pieces strength of a team in which Syed Kirmani came at number 10. Mind you he was no bunny with the bat. As for bowling, take away Kapil Dev and you would wonder what the rest of them were doing on a cricket field. The first part of the match followed the script. The fearsome foursome of the West Indies between them sent the Indians packing for a paltry 183 ( just put the missing 9 to uncover the secret power of 83 that helped India do the impossible that year).

But the second part of script went haywire. It was not David's skill but Goliath's grossly wrong assessment of the capability of the puny little boy in front of him that caused the Biblical upset. Greenidge and Haynes and Richards and Lloyd walked in with disdain and walked out of the ground looking like lost kids. Kapil's Devils had knocked the stuffing out of the feared batting line-up of Lloyd's boys.

Lloyd's realistic dream of lifting the cup that cheers the most in international for a record third time fell short of the modest Indian target of 183 by just 44 runs. It is a sin to be caught napping. And this was the sin the cocky charmers from the Caribbean committed that fateful day at the Lord's and paid a heavy price for it. They were literally caught napping.

But give the devil his due. And Kapil's Devil another round of applause for making the average Indian start believing in the Indian team. Give me those bits-and-pieces players any day I will place my bet once again on India. The fancy averages of the present Indian batsmen don't impress me one bit. Not one player in Kapil's team had an average touching 40. But they had hunger. They had the spirit and the self-belief to beat the best in the game. And they did it with remarkable ease.

Kapil Dev da jawaab nahi. And that goes for his bits-and-pieces players. They delivered when it mattered the most. Can Ganguly's gang of promising youngsters and acclaimed talent repeat the magic again when the tournament gets underway in South Africa from February 8? Hmmm. I don't want to sound unpatriotic.

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