THE TEAM            PROFILES             INTERESTING PLAYER STATS                                    

The fancy averages of the present Indian batsmen don't impress me one bit. Not one player in Kapil's team had an average touching 40. But they had hunger. They had the spirit and the self-belief to beat the best in the game. And they did it with remarkable ease, recalls- L. H. Naqvi.

The ’83 Indian Team’s feat is the Best example for “A superlative TEAM PERFORMANCE” ever seen from any Indian Team.

Take the batting performance of team ,it wasn't just the openers or one of middle order batsmen who performed, you can't name one individual player who stood out (unlike the last world cup where you could quickly point to Sachin Tendulkar). Infact in the first match against the West Indies it was the lower order combination of Yashpal Sharma  (89 off 120) leading the way with the likes of Roger Binny and Madan Lal contributing useful runs  after the top batsmen had failed to do much of substance. the second league match saw Amarnath and Sandeep Patil leading the batting front. This could be seen through out the tournament.

The bowling performance was just as good as the batting and sometimes better. The World Cup  underscored some of the latent strengths in the side -- allrounders Madan Lal, Roger Binny and Ravi Shastri were time and again producing tight spells and taking wickets in the middle, while Mohinder Amarnath's controlled bowling was the icing on the cake.

The Indians in this tournament showed that they had mastered the one-day game, bowling tightly, fielding better than any Indian team of the past (and most of the present lot too), and never giving up. Binny with 18 (still a record for most wickets in a World Cup tournament), and Madan Lal with 17 wickets were their leading bowlers, and Kapil Dev topped the batting averages.

"India have learnt the value of fielding in the one-day game. Team work, and Kapil's captaincy, has made this a dangerous side."   David Gower, England's vice-captain.