India played its first One Day International in 1974. At the start of the 1983 World Cup, in 9 years, India had participated in just 40 (yes, forty) ODI's, winning just 12 of them. In the 25 years since then, India has played 645 ODI's and counting!
What happened in 1983? Well, on June 25th, Kapil Dev raised the Prudential Cup! Everyone who watched that match (and the number of people who did watch that match surprisingly increases every year) remembers what they were doing when India won the World Cup. That event changed how much cricket would be played in the future, resulting in the World Cup leaving the shores of England and migrating to the Indian sub-continent.
So why has the BCCI not actively tom-tomed that event this past year? When you can have silver jubilee celebrations for the most mundane things, why did the BCCI pass up such a golden opportunity to rake in some more money through the sale of memoribilia and memories? Ah, you see, the answer lies in the fact that Kapil Dev, today, is persona non grata as far as the BCCI is considered because of his active involvement with the ICL. The BCCI is willing to cut its nose in order to spite its face as long as it means not recognizing the ICL.
Here's an analogy. How would you feel if, in 25 years, the BCCI pretends as if MS Dhoni does not exist and that the Twenty20 World Cup win did not occur?
1 comment:
bcci cannot see past money. worst is they are not paying his retirement money.
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