The team leaves for London early on June 24 to be in time for the momentous day.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
India to come alive at Lord's
New Delhi: Grand celebrations are planned to commemorate India's 25th annivesary of winning a cricket World Cup.
Apart from the celebrations that will be undertaken here on Sunday, the real 'fun' will start when India's champion team flies down to London to relive the magic moments of that day in June 1983.
The team leaves for London early on June 24 to be in time for the momentous day of June 25 when the world was won.
Sunil Gavaskar's management firm, Professional Management Group (PMG) have made elaborate plans to go down the memory lane on that day.
For starters the 14 champions will walk down in a parade from the long room at the Lord's to the turf where the moment was achieved.
What will follow is a group photo for the sake of the media and will be followed by interview opportunities for the media at Lord's Tavern which is next to the Grace Gate.
Boycott then suggested that the Indian team should look to uncork a champagne bottle just the way they did in 1983. "That will be the best way to relive the entire day,'' Boycott told cricketnirvana.com.
He suggested this to Gavaskar through a common friend, the organiser of the celebrations, and it was instantly accepted.
The entire event is about nostalgia and sure enough champagne will be splashed all over when the team will get back to the dressing room where no media will be allowed.
This will be an exact replay of what happened on that eventful day in 1983 when India won the Cup.
Rumour has it that even on that day in 1983, Indian captain Kapil Dev carried a champagne bottle in his kit bag in the hope that even if the team lost they would celebrate the event of reaching a World Cup final. Even another of Kapil's Devil, Sandeep Patil, had carried a bottle of champagne with him then.
A famus story from that time is that the West Indies dressing room had lots of champagne bottles with them because they had been sure of a win. But the sporting champions that they were, the big daddy of them all, Clive Lloyd, handed over all those bottles to Kapil Dev.
"You take it. You guys deserve it maan,'' is what Lloyd is believed to have told Kapil that day.
That day's bhangra by Kapil in the dressing room is still fresh in memories of the members of that team and some are hoping for an encore.
Indian cricket will come alive at Lord's on June 25 this year because every memory associated with our team will be on display in the Long Room that day.
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So Sunil Gavaskar's skull cap which became his trademark headgear and was prominent in his final first-class match, the 1987-88 Maryleborne Cricket Club (MCC) Bicentenary clash, will be on display.
Also to be paraded on that day will be maestro Sachin Tendulkar's sweater, Sourav Ganguly's shirt that he so famously twirled when India won the Natwest Series in 2002.
The authorities at Lord's will also be putting on display the letter by the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a menu card from India's inaugural tour to England in 1932.
It is also reliably learnt that every member of the Indian team will get a replica of the 1983 World Cup from the event sponsors UB Group.
The media will be kept away from the special dinner organised on the night of June 25, but around 160-175 guests have been invited for the function.
A key invitee is former England captain and present president of MCC (owners of the Lord's cricket ground), Mike Brearley.
