India's head coach Ravi Shastri talks about the match which made the Indian team believe in themselves.
25th June 2019 marks the 36th anniversary of India’s first ever World Cup title win. Former captain and India’s current head coach Ravi Shastri recalled the World Cup 1983 memories standing at the Old Trafford, Manchester.
The Indian team faced the mighty West Indians first up, who had won the first two tournaments and had never lost a World Cup game. The underdogs beat the defending champions and that is when they believed they could go all the way.
Shastri told bcci.tv, “It has all begun here (at Old Trafford) in the summer of 1983. India played on an opening day against the West Indies, a team that had never been beaten in World Cup history. This was the meeting point and India beat the West Indies on this very group. Plenty has changed here since then.”
“Behind the ground are the railways' tracks and I will never forget that. When the game got tight Joel Garner hit one right into the railway tracks. I for one will never forget that the game because I took the last wicket,” he added.
“That (win) started it all. It gave us the belief that we could beat any side, once we had beat the West Indies. There was no stopping us. Good to be back here. 1983 is what changed the face of Indian cricket.”
The official Twitter handle of BCCI posted the video:
On this iconic day, #TeamIndia Head coach & 1983 World Cup winner @RaviShastriOfc takes us back to where it all started ???????? pic.twitter.com/phMJ2vbAfv
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 25, 2019
After the great Sunil Gavaskar, India’s next batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar always has maintained that he was inspired by that Indian team’s World Cup victory. This great man then went on to inspire another couple of generations to play cricket and look where Indian cricket is right now. Thus, it can be concluded that the win in 1983 changed Indian cricket completely.