Legendary West Indies fast bowler Andy Roberts feels India were “lucky” to win the 1983 World Cup. In Kapil Dev’s leadership, underdogs India, beat the mighty West Indies in the final at Lord’s to create history with their maiden world title. West Indies, the unbeaten champions of the previous two editions of the World Cup, came into the tournament as an outright favourite with hosts England and Australia being their formidable challengers. Very few gave India a chance to qualify for the semi-finals, let alone win the tournament. But the Kapil Dev-side proved the doubters wrong, at least some of them.
India and West Indies played three matches in the 1983 World Cup and India ended up on the winning side twice, including the final. But Roberts, who was one of the leaders of West Indies’ fearsome pace battery of that time, thinks West Indies were clearly the better team in the tournament.
“Yeah, we lost to India. It was one of those things. As we all know, cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties. You win some, and you lose some. We are always prepared to lose. We play to win—not at all costs, but fair and squarely. We were not outplayed by a better team. But as we all know, cricket is a game where you have to be on top for the duration of the match. We outplayed India up to the end of India’s innings. And you see, people don’t look at cricket as a game of luck and chance. Up until 1983, we hadn’t lost a World Cup game. In 1983, we were beaten twice. There were only two defeats between 1975 and 1983 in the World Cup, and India beat us both times,” Roberts told Sportstar.
Roberts, who represented West Indies in 47 Tests and 56 ODIs, picking up 202 and 87 wickets respectively, also did not fail to remind that the touring Caribbean side beat world champions India 3-0 in Tests and 5-0 in ODIs in the same year.
“We were in form but due for a bad game. It was just India’s luck in 1983. Because of that great team that we had, we lost two games in 1983, and both to India. And then, five or six months later, we beat India 6-0. So, it was just that game. Luck went India’s way after they were dismissed for 180-odd.
“We weren’t outplayed. We just lost the game. It was not overconfidence or complacency,” he added.
