With such huge amounts of cash bein roll’d ov’r one wonders today if it was more lucrative to have taken up cricket for a career or even bein a singer or a dancer[ courtesy : reality shows bucketing gargantuan rewards for those who shake a leg or break a window pane]. Interestingly I did see most shows on television these days with titles like the Lord’s of ’83 or How the World was won and so on …. Befittingly the job of interviewing the legends was taken up by Rajdeeb Sardesai, Charu Sharma and the like. It was reminiscence of that image of Kapil Dev with a wide mouthed close –up smile and a huge bell jar of a cup in his hands, the Prudential Silverware. Although it took exactly two months and twenty four hours before I took my first breath out of my mom’s womb, the image that the cricketing maestro left [Kapil’s World Cup Smile] was to last for years to come. Else I wudnt’ve come across the same image in the cover of a note pad that I used in my Kindergarten and then again in my Tenth.

As an Indian lad who knows nothing better than Cricket, it would be rather thwarting, as I consider it, to say that I haven’t followed the game closely enough all through my life. There was a phase that saw Sachin come to the scene and then it was raining Sixes and the Indians ruled the roost again…but we never made it again to lifting that precious cup. And then stormed controversy after controversy; and the BCCI finally hammered the last nail in the coffin to Azhar and match fixing. Sad was the spectator to comprehend that it was all but sham. Amidst Disrepute and disrespect to the game and dishonor to the profession, the spectator mused in utter disbelief that he was being hoaxed by the wily ol’ swindler…. But then India’s where it lives and India breathes Cricket, so today the spectator has learnt to put the times of yore behind and enjoy the wholesome entertainment that the game provides. But it would be a shame if we don’t relive that glorious moment written in golden letters in India’s Cricketing history, the World Cup Legend of Kapil’s Devils in ’83.[Stand up for the Champions – Right Said Fred in the background]]