“We thought Kapil Dev was crazy but his self-belief got us thinking maybe it was true. We went out  and beat them quite comfortably and suddenly thought to ourselves, we can do this.”

Mysore/Mysuru: The one-and-a-half-hour session on “Life’s lessons from the 1983 World Cup victory” led by legendary India cricketer Krishnamachari (Kris) Srikkanth as part of the Sixth Season of the Mysuru Literature Festival captivated the audience as Srikkanth remembered vignettes from the competition like yesterday.

The festival is being organised at Hotel Southern Star on Vinobha Road by Mysuru Literary Forum Charitable Trust and Mysuru Book Clubs-2015. Today is the concluding day of the festival and there are sessions both in English and Kannada that cover a wide range of topics.

Today’s sessions began with cricket where Srikkanth told the audience, “That triumph gave us the belief that we could be the best. That India could conquer the world. It was a very important result for Indian cricket.”

Interspersing his talk with anecdotes, wit and humour, he held the audience in rapt attention and actively involved them in the conversation. Instead of a one-way talk, it was communicative. Srikkanth said, “It was the first match against the West Indies at Old Trafford that instilled confidence in us.”

Passion and the right attitude:  Addressing writers and literature lovers, he said that passion is important for anyone who wants to achieve anything in life. “Unless you have passion, you cannot write and without passion, there is no victory in cricket. The India team, led by Kapil Dev did the unthinkable at Lord’s on June 25, 1983, defeating the mighty West Indies by 43 runs to make history,” he recalled.

“Sometimes I have to pinch myself and say we are still talking about the 1983 World Cup. It’s been 39 years. It was a great achievement. As our manager put it in the ‘83 movie, it was our second independence. We got our independence in 1947; this was the Independence Day for cricket in India. That changed the face of Indian cricket in my opinion. I’m sure all of you will agree,” he said and the audience responded with an emphatic yes.

Meant to be a combined holiday: When Srikkanth and a few other teammates left for England for the 1983 World Cup, it was meant to be a stopover for them. The plan was to head to the US from there for — besides a combined holiday — a belated honeymoon for Srikkanth who got married in March.

“You will never get another Kapil Dev in your life. He is a guy who never gives up. He’s a never-say-die cricketer. He’s a typical Punjabi who says ‘Don’t leave it guys’. He has got that attitude, an aggressive attitude. He likes to take on his opponents. That’s what his attitude is,” he recalled.

Srikkanth said Kapil Dev’s aggressive attitude was the key to winning the title. “Prior to the World Cup, we went on a tour, I was actually dropped for that. That’s when I got married. One of the ODIs, we beat them. Kapil Dev said ‘when we can beat the West Indies once, why not once more?’ We thought he went nuts. Just like how they are portrayed in the movie 83, all of you must’ve seen it. They had an incredible team, I thought he went mad. But then, our captain was very serious,” he said.

Ending Caribbean supremacy: The engineer-turned-cricketer further added that they did not feel that much pressure in that historic summit clash as the then-mighty West Indies were the favourites to win their third straight title. “We ultimately registered the biggest win in the history of world cricket as India won by 43 runs and thereby, ended the Caribbean supremacy,” Srikkanth added.

“We could walk on the streets of London on the same night and say we are the world champions. We Indians across the world can walk on the streets whether in London or in New York and say we are the world champions. That is the greatest achievement of the 1983 World Cup,” Srikkanth explained.

Later, a question-and-answer session followed where the cricketer again stressed on positive attitude, passion, self-belief and energy. “My mouth is my greatest strength and at the same time it is my greatest enemy too,” he said.

Mysuru Literary Forum Charitable Trust and Mysuru Book Clubs-2015 Founder-Managing Trustee Shubha Sanjay Urs, Vice-Chairman Sam Cherian Kumbukattu, Treasurer Raian Irani, Joint Secretary C.R. Hanumanth, Secretary Thankam Panakal, Trust Members Kitty Mandana, Author and entrepreneur Aroon Raman and others were present.