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| March 22, 2003 | Saturday | Muharram 18, 1424 |
Sachin was ten when India won in 1983
JOHANNESBURG, March 21: It’s been a long 20 years since India last won the World Cup.
When Kapil Dev lifted the trophy at Lord’s in June 1983, Sachin Tendulkar was only ten, India was still playing Test matches against Pakistan and future Test wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel wasn’t even born.
Indira Gandhi was still Prime Minister, Zail Singh was the country’s president, the Sikh separatist movement in the northern state of Punjab was in full swing and was a bigger issue than Kashmir is now.
Vijay Amritraj, India’s Davis Cup hero, starred in the James Bond thriller ‘Octopussy’ the same year. India’s hockey team were the Olympic champions.
In sport, Martina Navratilova won the women’s singles crown at Wimbledon, John McEnroe took the men’s, Brazil’s Nelson Piquet was winning his second world motor racing championship while the Washington Redskins were the kings of the Superbowl.
Ominously for India, the Australians were still celebrating a sporting coup of their own as they lifted the America’s Cup in yatching for the first time in 132 years.
In the news, Sally Ride became the first American woman to travel in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger, before the United States was plunged into mourning when 241 Marines died in a suicide bomb attack in Beirut.
Bullets were flying everywhere — the United States invaded Grenada, the Soviets shot down a Korean airliner and, as the Cold War got a little frostier, president Ronald Reagan introduced the Star Wars defence system.
Hollywood would have liked that last one — the biggest money-making film that year was the ‘Return of the Jedi’ while ‘War Games’ was fifth.
Lech Walesa was Nobel Peace Prize winner while the world of music lost Karen Carpenter, at the age of 32, and the Beach Boys Dennis Wilson, who drowned at 52.
The final episode of M.A.S.H. was aired and was watched by 125 million viewers worldwide.
Those who weren’t tuned in were probably enjoying new sensations like Cabbage Patch dolls, camcorders and CDs which all made an appearance that year.—AFP
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