37th anniversary of the 1983 World Cup victory: The untold stories from the tournament

On the 37th anniversary of the 1983 World Cup win, we bring to you some lesser-known anecdotes from the campaign, both from on and off-the-field, recounted by the World Champions themselves.

Captain Kapil Dev’s insistence on talking in (broken) English in team meetings was a headache for the team. Batsman Sandeep Patil recounted at an event, “He just inserted English words randomly.He would go “Jimmy pa, you stay. Sandy, you become a lion. Kiri, you keep.” Once he walked out of the meeting, we had to decode his instructions.”

After the victorious team returned home, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) wanted to reward the players but had no cash. The then BCCI President NKP Salve urged singer Lata Mageshkar to hold a fundraising concert. The legendary singer obliged and agreed to do the concert for free, raising Rs 20 lakh, a princely sum in those times.
Madan Lal watches as Viv Richards skies a pull off his bowling in the final

Opening batsman Kris Srikkanth had gotten married two months before the World Cup and was treating the tournament as a stopover for his honeymoon in the US. “Most of us were planning a vacation to the States, just stopping by to play the World Cup on the way,” he recounted in an interview. However, his plans crashed once India won. He said, “I had to rebook my tickets for extra Rs 10,000.”

Kapil saved India from being knocked out in the group stages with a memorable innings of 175 against Zimbabwe. Fans didn’t get to watch it because of a BBC strike but star batsman Dilip Vengsarkar missed it despite being with the team. “In the very first match, I got hit on my face multiple times by Malcolm Marshall and my jaw was fractured. I was in a London hospital with seven stitches and missed the great innings,” he told a gathering last year.
Dilip Vengsarkar missed Kapil's iconic innings against Zimbabwe as he had been hospitalised

For many young players, overseas tours in those days were opportunities to mingle with the locals, particularly women. All-rounder Mohinder Amarnath said at the launch event of 83, the Kabir-Khan directed film, “It was a paid holiday, we were young guys and we were not married.”
Members of the Indian squad at London's Heathrow Airport on arrival in England for the tournament

Most players in the squad were touring England for the first time and were treating the tournament as a vacation. Sandeep Patil once said, “As we left India, virtually all of us were in a holiday mood. More than thinking about facing Malcolm Marshall, Bob Willis and Jeff Thomson, we were engrossed in planning our sightseeing activities.”