Recently, Sir Andy Roberts slammed Rohit Sharma and Co for their below-par performance in the ICC World Test Championship in June.
During an interview, he said that India keep underestimating the rest of the world and that arrogance had crept into the side that results in constant setbacks. It is noteworthy that it was in 2013 when India last won an ICC trophy.
Roberts is again making headlines, this time targeting the 1983 World Cup-winning Indian team under Kapil Dev. Dev, who was 24 years old at the time, had a mountain to climb with no prior leadership experience. Moreover, in the previous two editions of the World Cup in 1975 and 1979, India had just one victory. West Indies, on the other hand, had won the trophy in both editions.
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In the World Cup in 1983, India were grouped together with heavyweights West Indies and Australia alongside Zimbabwe. The format would require all teams to play each other twice in the league stage.
India got off to an improbable start, defeating the two-time world champions by 34 runs. Though they lost to the West Indies in the next meeting, they went on to defeat Zimbabwe twice and Australia once to book their spot in the semi-finals, where they beat hosts England and set up a third match with the Caribbean giants.
In the final at Lord's, India, after being put into bat first, scored a meagre 183 with Kris Srikkanth posting the highest individual total of 38 runs.
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India got off to a great start and kept the pressure on the West Indies, eventually dismissing them for 140 to lift their maiden World Cup.
Now, Andy Roberts, who led the pace attack, claimed that India got 'lucky' with their win.
"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, 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," said Roberts during an interview.
Adding to that, he said that none of the Indian cricketers impressed him in any way in the summit clash.
Admitting that they were outplayed on that day, the West Indies great also claimed that the wicket of Viv Richards was the turning point of the final. Roberts played 47 Tests and 56 ODIs for the West Indies, picking up 202 and 87 wickets, respectively.
