Review of 83- The Film

 Kapil's Devils, as the team came to be known, was not given even an outside chance of reaching anywhere in the Prudential Cup of Cricket. The world cup was considered a West Indian monopoly. Their fearsome pace attack subjugated all other teams then, and made the batsmen's job easy, though they had good batsmen in Richards, Lloyd, Greenidge, Dujon, etc. 

Mostly, it was self-belief after the first two games were won, exemplary leadership by Kapil, and great teamwork with all the members chipping in when it mattered, that got India this cup. It was so unexpected that an English journalist had to literally eat his words!

The film is superb, and recaptures the legendary march to victory over the West Indies, England and Zimbabwe - probably the most important to enable India to get to the semi-final. Ranveer and Pankaj Tripathi are the pick of the cast, but others are very good, and most looked like their counterparts. A good touch to get Mohinder to play Lala Amarnath, his father. Endearing moments with almost all the players captured so well. Man Singh's Hyderabadi was a great top-up to a great movie. Just watch it!

Cricketers I liked Watching

This includes some that I could not watch, because TV had not come in. I don't really watch it now, so many would be older guys..

Prasanna and his off-spin. I was fascinated by his bowling, perhaps because I tried it without much success.

Eknath Solkar and his amazing catches that won several matches. I have seen some photographs where he was almost horizontal.

Kapil Dev, for his positive body language, and rhythm in bowling.

Jayasuriya, for his fearless batting. He turned many matches around.

Ranatunga for his captaincy. They beat Australia to win the World Cup under him.

Wadekar, for his captaincy.

West Indies fast bowlers for their fearsome stuff- there were many like Holder, Roberts, Garner, Holding, Marshall..they won all the Test series for around 15 years.

Jonty Rhodes for his fielding.

Azhar, and Laxman for their batting with smooth, silky strokes.

Dhoni for his captaincy.

Lifelong Memories- Laxman and more

I used to watch cricket matches once. And I did watch the 1983 world cup triumph on an Uptron TV in the IIMB hostel common room. The great ones in that match were the likes of Kapil Dev, and Balwinder Singh Sandhu who put that one past Gordon Greenidge. In my later watching years, I saw entire series played abroad where only Rahul Dravid and Laxman and sometimes Tendulkar withstood the assault of the bowlers from West Indies, Australia or England.

Laxman played as if he was taking a walk in the park, so effortless was his style. Rahul Dravid was deliberate, and had grit more than style. Sachin, of course, was uninhibited in his early days, but as he progressed, appeared to be weighed down by too many expectations, which can kill even Superman's enthusiasm.

But the standout innings of Laxman and Dravid has to be the long 400 plus partnership in Kolkata that gave the Aussies their most stunning defeat when they were the top test team. Amazing, coming back after following on, and socking it to them. More exciting than a boxing bout for me.

He was a wonderful catcher and has a lot of great catches in close positions like the slips or forward short leg. His only minus point according to me was captaincy, and that showed up when he led Hyderabad's Deccan Chargers. But then, some would argue that IPL is not cricket at all.