1983 World Cup: On this day, 40 years ago, on 25 June 1983, the Indian cricket team won the first World Cup. On this day the team captained by Kapil Dev had immortalized their name in the pages of history by defeating the mighty West Indies in the final. After this title, cricket became a religion in India. The credit for this also goes to the great singer Lata Mangeshkar.
You might not know about this, but believe me, knowing what Lata ji did for Indian cricket, you will also salute her. Lata ji is not in this world, but her favor will always be remembered by cricket lovers. In fact, when Team India won the World Cup for the first time in 1983, then in today’s situation BCCI, the world’s richest cricket board, did not even have the money to reward those players.
BCCI president had sought help from Lata
The then BCCI president NKP Salve wanted to give awards to all the players who won the World Cup trophy, but was constrained due to paucity of funds. Salve sought help from the nightingale Lata Mangeshkar to get out of this critical situation. Lata ji also loved cricket. So she said yes to the help and to celebrate the victory of the Indian team, a Lata Mangeshkar concert was organized at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Delhi.
Lata ji did not take a single penny
This concert of Lata ji was a huge hit and earned Rs 20 lakhs from it. The special thing is that he did not take a single penny from BCCI for the song. Later, all the members of the Indian team were given one lakh rupees as a reward. This boosted the morale of the players and they worked hard and contributed well for the team.
The players had mixed the notes of Lata ji
In the concert held at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Lata Mangeshkar sang many songs, but the song ‘Bharat Vishwa Vijetha’ was well received. The music of this song was given by Lata Mangeshkar’s brother Hridaynath Mangeshkar, while its lyrics were written by famous Bollywood lyricist ‘Indivar’. The special thing is that when Lata Mangeshkar was singing this song on the stage, then the players of the Indian cricket team were also joining Lata ji’s voice from behind.
