Legendary West Indies pacer Andy Roberts has said that the Indian team had gotten lucky in the 1983 World Cup, where the Kapil Dev-led side defeated Clive Lloyd’s unit to win their maiden ICC tournament.
India was led by then 24-year-old Kapil Dev and coming into the 1983 World Cup, the side had a total of one victory in the previous two editions of the World Cup, which were won by the West Indies under Lloyd’s captaincy.
India was clubbed with two-time world champions West Indies and Australia in the same group that also featured Zimbabwe and everyone played each other twice in the league stage. But the Indian side began on the most positive note possible by defeating West Indies in Berbice in their first match.
India lost to West Indies in the second leg but went on to topple Australia and Zimbabwe (twice) to book a spot in the semi-finals, where they beat hosts England to enter the finals.
The final was played at the Lord’s and the Indian team was asked to bat first on a green top wicket by Clive Lloyd. Thanks to 38 from Kris Srikkanth, India posted 183 runs in the 60-over per side encounter.
While India managed to get a great start, with Balvinder Singh Sandhu removing Gordon Greenidge early; ace batter Viv Richards counterattacked in the best way possible and at one stage looked like single-handedly taking the game away from India.
But then Madan Lal managed to get Richards to mishit a pull shot and he was caught brilliantly by Kapil Dev. This was the shot in the arm for India, who went on to win by 43 runs by restricting the two-time champions to 140 runs and lifting their maiden World Cup trophy.
Andy Roberts, the leader of that West Indies pace attack, comprising of Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, and Michael Holding, has claimed that the Indian team just got lucky in that tournament.
"Yeah, we lost to India. It was one of those things. As we all know, cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties. You win some, and you lose some. We are always prepared to lose. We play to win—not at all costs, but fair and squarely. We were not outplayed by a better team. But as we all know, cricket is a game where you have to be on top for the duration of the match.
We outplayed India up to the end of India’s innings. And you see, people don’t look at cricket as a game of luck and chance. Up until 1983, we hadn’t lost a World Cup game. In 1983, we were beaten twice. There were only two defeats between 1975 and 1983 in the World Cup, and India beat us both times," Roberts told Sportstar.
Roberts, who represented West Indies in 47 Tests and 56 ODIs, picking up 202 and 87 wickets respectively, reminded that West Indies had defeated world champions India 3-0 in Tests and 5-0 in ODIs in the same year.
"We were in form but due for a bad game. It was just India’s luck in 1983. Because of that great team that we had, we lost two games in 1983, both to India. And then, five or six months later, we beat India 6-0. So, it was just that game. Luck went India’s way after they were dismissed for 180-odd. We weren’t outplayed. We just lost the game. It was not overconfidence or complacency," he added.
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Furthermore, Roberts said that the wicket of Viv Richards was the turning point of that 1983 World Cup final.
"I think it was when Viv (Richards) got out. We could never recover. The only difference in the finals is that in 1975 and 1979, we were inserted. In ‘83, we batted second. That was the difference,” Roberts said.
Roberts said none of the Indian cricketers impressed him in the final, though Mohinder Amarnath picked three wickets and scored 26 runs.
"Among the batsmen, I was not impressed by anyone in particular. No one got a fifty. Among the bowlers, no one got a 5-fer or even a 4-fer. So, I was not particularly impressed. Batsmen impress when you play a top-quality inning. And no one from India did that," he said.
(Sportstar inputs)
