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Journalism of Courage
The Prudential Cup got a fresh coat of polish, and then got smudged all over again as each of Kapil8217;s Devils relived Indian cricket8217;s greatest moment all over again. Together, they made as happy a picture as they did on June 25, 1983 8212; the difference being a few hairs lost, a few grey, and a few inches added at the waistline.
The two-hour long felicitation by the BCCI remained an evening full of memories. Kapil Dev and his players held centrestage in the function attended former captains, Test players, administrators 8212; not to forget families and kids of the cricketers 8212; kids who would only have heard stories about that evening got to see their fathers hold up that trophy. And the BCCI, for once, remained in the background.
Barely an hour before the function, there had been a 8216;team meeting8217; at Kapil8217;s room, where discussions ranged from present day cricket to reminiscising.
Story time
He must have picked up a few memories from that chat when he came up on stage. 8220;Kirmani was always late for everything, but he was never late for a catch,8221; he said. 8220;I enjoyed a great relationship with Srikkanth8230; he never understood my English, and I never understood his Hindi.8221;
There were more gems, as his team mates walked up one by one. 8220;Jimmypa Mohinder Amarnath was my senior, and I learnt a lot of things from him, including how to wash clothes. We were trying to save one pound by washing our own clothes and I hurt my knuckles washing clothes. I couldn8217;t bowl the next day. A lot of things happen, the importance of which we don8217;t realise then. And the rewards come 25 years later,8221; he said. 8220;What we got at that time was the love of the board and the country.8221;
Once other members of the team had made short speeches, the then board president NKP Salve made sure there was no let up in the entertaining, recalling tales of how Kapil8217;s Devils had pestered him for rewards. 8220;Yeh jo aaj sharif bankar khade hai, yeh sab badmaash the tab People who are standing here like gentlemen today weren8217;t like this then. Gavaskar was the first to ask me how much money the board would give. I told them we could manage Rs 1 lakh or two lakh in total, and he said: 8216;we want a reward, not tips!8217; I had no idea how to generate those funds, but then Lata Mangeskar held that concert and we managed Rs 54 lakh. At that time, the board was short on funds, but at we were rich in cricket. The amount of love, affection and passion the public showered on the team even 25 IPLs cannot match,8221; he said.
