No tickets, no problem for 1983 final

It is moments like these that every sportsman strives for during the course of his career But glory is something that embraces only a few Ask the South African cricketers what it means to be left in a lurch especially after doing all the hard work at ICC events Ask the Netherlandsrsquo footballers what it means to be called lsquothe best team never to have won the World Cuprsquo The Indian team holds the Prudential World Cup after beating West Indies Dilip Vengsarkar is at the extreme left behind manager PR Man Singh PicGetty Images It is the memory associated with such historic triumphs that provides players the oxygen they need long after they have hung up their boots The story is no different with the Indian team which emerged victorious at the 1983 Prudentialu00a0World Cup There are endless tales that players belonging to that enviable squad have recounted over the past 30 years but fans just canrsquot have enough of those recollections Itrsquos the scent of success you seeu00a0ldquo25th June I can never forget this day How time fliesrdquo remarks Dilip Vengsarkar as we sit down for a chat at his Dadar residence The former India captain reveals how Kapil Dev amp Co helped several ticketless Indian supporters get inside the Lordrsquos for the final ldquoA lot of Indians wanted to watch the match but many of them couldnrsquot get tickets So we accommodated almost 70 to 80 of them in our team bus They were ready to pay any amount of money to get a ticket but nobody was selling ldquoThey were desperate to get into the ground So those we knew we took inside the bus and thatrsquos how they managed to get inside the ground Never before had I experienced such a thing a jampacked bus heading for a matchrdquo he recallsu00a0The veteran of 116 Test matches gets nostalgic recalling another special moment ldquoAfter the win we partied till late in the night We did not have any food We went searching for it but all the restaurants were shut Only a few Indian restaurants were open as they were also celebrating And that is how we managed to get some food It was a crazy nightrdquou00a0Vengsarkarrsquos eyes light up as he describes Team Indiarsquos journey to the final ldquoThere were some great sides competing in the World Cup Nobody gave us a chance We had a very poor oneday international recordrdquo u00a0India was pitted against twotime defending champions West Indies in their Cup opener at the Old Trafford But before talking about it Vengsarkar stresses on the win against the mighty Windies during a threematch ODI series in the Caribbean which came just before the World Cup ldquoWe beat them in the second match at Berbice Guyana The Windies were invincible You had to play extraordinarily well to beat them which we did ldquoSo before our first match June 910 at the back of our minds we knew we had beaten the West Indies before There was a feeling that if we bat first and put up some runs then we could put them under pressure We also had to get early wickets as that was our only hope ldquoOn the other hand the West Indies never knew what it meant to play under pressure We batted first scored some runs 2628 got early wickets and we won the match It was a big thing for usrdquou00a0India then beat Zimbabwe in Leicester but lost backtoback games to Australia and the West Indies Vengsarkarrsquos World Cup campaign ended at the Oval after being hit on the chin by Malcolm Marshall lsquoSeven stitchesrsquo ldquoIt required seven stitches The marks are still visiblerdquo he says before adding ldquoI do regret it of not being part of the final I was fit for the final but did not expect to be picked as others in the team were scoring runs Sandeep Patil Yashpal Sharma Mohinder Amarnath and Kirti Azadhellip all were doing well Since we kept winning they did not want to change the combination which is quite obvious It is a part of the game You have to accept it But I enjoyed every momentrdquo u00a0Coming on the back of two consecutive losses the magnificent win against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells was just the kind of turnaround the Indian team was looking for ldquoIt was a great win Kapil played an excellent knock of 175 not out to help India post 2668 after being 787 at one stagerdquo Vengsarkar says u00a0India was now in the knockout stage for the first time in World Cups ldquoWe were in the quarterfinal facing Australia We did not expect anything We once again surprised everyone by beating them ldquoWe came to Old Trafford to play England in the semifinal It was a full house The English crowd thought it would be England versus West Indies in the final But once they lost they started selling their ticketsrdquo u00a0Underdogs India did the unthinkable by reaching the final ldquoWe batted badly We only got 183 and West Indies had a great batting lineup The way Viv Richards started I thought the match would be over in less than 40 overs But once he got out they kept losing wicketsrdquo u00a0From 573 the Windies folded up for 140 ldquoSkipper Kapil made this win possible He led from the front and was outstanding in batting bowling and fieldingrdquo concludes Vengsarkaru00a0