Is it already 25 years then? Should the memories be acquiring a little sepia edge to them? Then why do I remember every moment of that game? To a generation that thinks yesterday was a million miles away, 25 years must seem like the Mughals and the East India company all over again. But they must know. The enormity, however improbable it was at that moment, of what happened on the 25th of June 1983.

There was no huge build-up. There couldn’t be. Six previous World Cup games had produced one win, against lowly East Africa, and India were finding their feet in limited overs cricket. Only 40 one-dayers had been played over 11 years and 28 of them had been lost. The World Cup meant a week in England in mid-June. This time it might be a bit longer since each team played each other twice. In spite of that, the World Cup was a mere 16-day affair. Had it not been for World Series Cricket, and the events in Australia, it might have remained as short as most modern weddings.

There were some signs, though, that things might be changing. A couple of wins had materialised in Australia (wins were as difficult to find as a melody in a Himesh Reshamiyya album or a hit from the Ramgopal Varma factory), and much to everyone’s astonishment the mighty West Indies had been beaten at home for the first time.

And, as I read through an amateur analysis I had made for the Deccan Chronicle on the 4th of June, 1983, I discover that Kim Hughes had labelled India the dark horses. The fan in me had tried to make out a case for India to qualify for the semi-final and, the day after the article had appeared, an elderly man laughed at my youthful optimism. “Semi-final, ha!” he said as if I had suggested that the left might go along with the nuclear deal.

... contd.