Heroics of legendary allrounder Kapil Dev, who turned 50 this week, inspired childhood dreams in India, writes Dileep Premachandran in the Guardian.
Speak to any cricketer from the golden generation Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and ask them who or what inspired their childhood dreams. You can rest assured that 1983 will get a mention within seconds. For the rest of the world, it was an upset win, the 66-1 outsider streaking past in the final furlong. For India, it was the day when sport pushed itself to the forefront of the national consciousness. There had been eight hockey golds at the Olympics, an All England badminton title for Prakash Padukone and Asian success for the footballers but no one event captured the imagination quite like Kapil's Davids slaying the invincible West Indian Goliaths in the final at Lord's.
