Cricket is a team sport and eleven players take to the field together to decide the fortunes of who the team will fare. It is rightly said that rather than individual brilliance, team work takes center stages in deciding whether a team can cross the winning line or not while competing at the biggest spectacle of the sport, the World Cup.
There have been examples a plenty in the past where sides went onto become World Champions on account of the sheer team camaraderie among team mates. 36 years ago, the 1983 Cricket World Cup win which catapulted cricket into India's most loved sport is testament of the 15-member squad gluing well as a team under the leadership of Kapil Dev.
The Indian team dubbed as underdogs were not even given an outside chance by the punters of the bookies to lift the coveted piece of silverware. West Indies who back then were hailed as the Kings of Cricket were dubbed as the favorites to win the tournament by one and all. However, the Kapil Dev-led Indian side proved critics wrong and lifted the World Cup by causing quite a few upsets en-route in their fairytale journey.
The Indian's staged one of the biggest upsets in World cricket when they defeated the Mighty West Indies in the title clash at Lord's to emerge as the World Champions.
Kapil Dev was an inspirational leader and led from the front but it indeed was a collective effort by the team that catapulted them to the status of World Champions.
Kapil had the requisite arsenal in his armory to beat the best side on their day. It was not about stellar performances by their stalwarts Sunil Gavaskar or a KapiL Dev, instead it was about the whole team getting their act together.
The Indian team had all the cogs in the wheel fitting to perfection. Yashpal Sharma stitching some useful up the order and also playing the sheet anchor's role when asked to bat in the middle order. Veteran Mohinder Amarnath with all his experience held the fort in the middle order to hold the innings together. Attacking strokemakers Kapil Dev and Sandeep Patil provided the late flourish to the innings with some quick fire cameos.
Allrounders like Kapil Dev, Madal Lal and Roger Binny lent depth and balance to the team with their all-round abilities. The Indian's had an excellent glovesman in Syed Kirmani who was clinical behind the stumps with his razor sharp glove work and chipped in with runs too.
While Kapil Dev spearheaded the pace attack with some potent swing and seam, Balwinder Singh Sandhu bowled his heart out to pick up wickets with the new ball. Medium pacers Madal Lal, Roger Binny and Mohinder Amarnath were extremely successful with the ball in seaming English conditions. Above all it was Kapil Dev's sheer charisma which rubbed onto the entire team and lifted their morale. The likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar dint have the best of tournaments, but others chipped in to fill their deficiency.
There certainly were moments of brilliance when Kapil Dev played a game changing 175-run knock against Zimbabwe but the underlying recipe behind the team's success was their all round team effort.
In the end, the contributions made by all the Indians were reflective in the tournament's run scoring and wicket taking charts. Kapil Dev and Madal Lal and Roger Binny were among the top 5 wicket takers and Kapil was among the leading run scorers in the showpiece event