I remember that night of June 25th 1983, when as a Young boy of 12 years, I sat near the radio in the corner of a room so that India would defend a paltry score of 183 runs. Rest of the family members were not interested any further because of that low score. For me Indian cricket team meant India and a win for the team is a win for the country. Though some of my elder siblings decried my view I never wavered. I was very clear and this is a sense of immense patriotism that has been imbibed( in our generation) or rather built over due to the beautifully composed national anthem, the beautifully designed National tri-colour, the stories of the valour of the First Nation builder, the Gupta King, Samudraguptha, the Rajput king Prithviraj Singh Chauhan, the Great Maratha- Shivaji and the Rajasthani- Rana Sanga, the Great Moghul, Akbar, Mangal Pandey, Netaji Subhash Bose, the Calmness and intelligence of the Mahatma, the Father of the Nation, the Lion Hearted Tangutri Prakasam, the visionary in Nehru and not to forget the Great Kapil Dev for that brilliant knock of 175 not out, when India was 17 for 5.True to my faith, India mustered strength and courage and skittled out the Windies for 141 on that eventful night. After that, there was a sea of emotions but there were no wild celebrations.
After that world cup win, I knew pretty well that India will be hammered in the subsequent matches because it is a game of cricket and on that day in Lord’s, India was good and it need not be the same again and teams will be seeking revenge. It happened just like that- India’s wins were sporadic and some horrible losses—like the last ball six against Pakistan. 1987 world cup arrived and Kapil dev had a handful of those brilliant men of 1983 world cup winning team. India flattered to deceive as they capitulated against the sweeping success of Graham Gooch against India’s main weapon, Maninder Singh. India was shunted out in Semis. I consoled myself that the cup may not be ours all the time. I was not disappointed.
There were a lot of hopes in 1991 as I entered my Youth and India had an emerging star in Sachin Tendulkar and the great dasher in Krish Srikkanth. However, India did not have the Skill of Imran Khan or planning like Martin Crowe and lost very badly. I was tad disappointed as a Win against Pakistan in an insignificant league match was camouflaged as if it was a Win in the Final by the sponsors.
1996 was a year where India had the greatest batting line-up under the three Mumbaikars-Sachin, Kambli and Manjrekar. We cannot forget the influence of the mercurial Mohammad Azharuddin over the course of a match and the fighter in Manoj Prabhakar. India also had the greatest Fast Bowling pair in Prasad and Srinath. Inspite of a great win against Arch-rival Pakistan, India lost very badly at Kolkata against a spirited Lankans under Ranatunge in the quarter finals. I did not appreciate the meek surrender though several reasons and theories were propagated for the image breaking loss. I tried to console myself by coming to a conclusion that Cricket is a game and the cricket team but not the country lost it.
I knew India was not going to win the World cup in 1999 because the team did not have many consistent dashers like Australia, yet, What made me reel under immense anger was the Super six loss against Zimbabwe, when all the batsmen queued to pavilion requiring a paltry 25 or 30 runs to win against a devastating bowling attack led by Henry Olanga. I knew Tendulkar missed the opportunity for the third time in a row inspite of his brilliant individual performances. I thought it was time for me to move on to start appreciating the other brilliant performances in other sports like P.Gopi Chand’s facile win in All-England Shuttle badminton but, V V S Laxman’s single handed knock of 281 in 2001 against the Aussies brought my interest back to cricket.
In 2003 world cup, I knew India had an outside chance because it had a great Fast bowling trio of Srinath, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan. India also had the best spin bowling combo of Harbhajan and Anil Kumble. India had one bad outing in the final as they ran into an inspired Ricky Ponting and lost the plot. This shattered my confidence in Cricket as I already gave up playing cricket as I entered the wrong side of thirties. I felt pity for Tendulkar as he lost a golden opportunity and injuries plagued him thereafter making him, vulnerable even against mediocre bowling sides. I slowly entered a phase where I started watching only the highlights of only those matches where India won.
2007 world cup in West Indies was the mother of all disappointments as India exited after the first round, beaten by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. India did not give Tendulkar the World cup for the fifth time or conversely Tendulkar did not win the cup for the fifth time for India. It was the greatest debacle and I lost the faith completely in cricket and vowed never to talk of cricket as negativism creeped into every aspect of the life for a brief while.
The great turn around was in 2008 Tri series win against Aussies and the way Tendulkar guided a marauding Rohit Sharma. I knew the mission had started. This rekindled my interest in cricket.
So the great Indian victory in Mumbai on the night of 2nd April 2011 was a well orchestrated, pre-meditated decimation of Aussie confidence over a period of time and making the best bowlers of the other teams look ordinary. India has a thoughtful captain in Dhoni and the senior statesman in Tendulkar. So, unlike in 1983, we Indians can look forward to a period of dominance in cricket for the next four- five years and since cricket and our confidence levels are interwoven, all other spheres like stock market driven economy, Agriculture and scientific inventions are bound to receive a big boost by drawing inspiration. I look forward to a more optimistic and enjoying period of cricket from now onwards. So this world cup win means a lot to us.
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