Malini Parthasarathy, Chairperson of The Hindu Group of Publications (Pvt. Ltd), stated that India’s epic triumph in the 1983 Cricket World Cup gave the nation a new found sense of self-confidence.
The defeatist mindset present in the country at the time was wiped away with that win, Malini said at the Sportstar Aces Awards 2023 at The Taj Mahal Palace here on Monday.
On the 40th anniversary of the famous victory, Kapil Dev and members of his team were honoured at the awards event here.
“India won a subsequent Cricket World Cup in 2011, but 1983 remains the game that is forever etched in all our minds and hearts. Why so? Because it was the first time that an Indian team actually tasted the sweet taste of being the World Number One. That also powered our collective self-esteem, and gave us real self-confidence that India could be a major player in the big game and we are on the road to becoming a major sporting power,” Malini said.
“That win changed India’s sporting destiny and our national life forever. We had been defeatist till then as a country, diffident about our sporting capability and timid in our approaches in the global arena. When Kapil Dev and his team of greats won, the entire cricket world was stunned and in disbelief,” Malini said.
“A new generation of cricketing greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli have been inspired by this great epic victory,” Malini said.