The trailer of the film based on the 1983 World Cup rekindles a strong memory in those of us who followed the Indian team which began the World Cup as a 66-1 outsider through an unbelievable two weeks in June 1983. The film obviously is not meant for those of us who followed the World Cup on the radio and the last two matches on the TV as well. The trailer looks like it wants the other half who weren't there to know about the event. Sadly, Yashpal is no more but he was instrumental for the turnaround and may be the weather in the opening match helped us a bit as well as the match went into the second day. Those watching the film will think that there was Hindi commentary on TV. In fact, there was no Hindi commentary on the radio either. For the early matches AIR was not covering the matches ball by ball.
While willing suspension of disbelief is fine, pretending as if the 175 match was on live TV is not quite on. On account of the BBC Outdoor broadcast artists being on strike on 18th June, there was no TV coverage of the matches played on that day. Moreover, with the benefit of hindsight, we know that this would not have been a must win game. The one at Chelmsford vs Australia would have been. And was the 66 run defeat a thrashing? May be. The 162 run one was, of course. All in all for those of us who have been through the 27 matches over two exhilarating weeks, this will be a rewind. Those who haven't lived through first three World Cups will not know what a mélange the World Cup was with four matches per day and to us in India following TMS on the World Service of the BBC or even those in the UK following on Radio 4 were getting only a few overs of a match at a time. Radio Pakistan were probably covering the Pakistan matches but I do not recall if I tried the Medium wave stations as the Short wave coverage was good. Farokh Engineer and Ashish Ray were with the TMS that summer for India's game and what contentment one could feel in their voice even at Manchester when India won only its second World Cup game and possibly only its second ODI in the UK. Ashish Ray and Engineer are still around. It would have been wonderful to have fitted them somewhere if they are not there already.
One day internationals were known to us for sometime but India's record till then was so patchy that All India Radio which covered even Rohinton Baria Trophy live did not deem it fit to broadcast live ODI matches even if it was the World Cup. The early good performance of the Indian team meant that by the second round, Indian matches were available on AIR using the BBC feed. So we knew whenever the Radi 4 and World Service listeners joined the India match. And so it was that the match which in a way brought Zimbabwe a following in India was available to us. From the Nevill Ground in Tunbridge Wells, we had a commentary box which had Asish Ray, Farokh Engineer and the Zimbabwean Bob Nixon along with the regular TMS callers( we did not know the usage then or at least I did not).
The match that we were taking for granted actually came to life even as we were settling in for the afternoon of cricket in a South Delhi neighbourhood. And the rest as they is history.
