Mumbai: Ajit Wadekar's 1971 victorious Indian team was felicitated in USA last week. This was revealed by Anjan Mitra, the President and P.K.Guha, the Chairman - Roaring India 70-80 Event Management Committee.
"For most of the cricket lovers like us, the golden era of Indian cricket is often celebrated from that evening on the 25th of June, 1983 when the Indian Cricket team under the leadership of Kapil Dev lifted the Prudential World Cup. But our focus was something different. It wasn’t at Lords but in Oval, across the Thames on a dull cloudy afternoon in 1971 that Indian Cricket finally found its voice and expression when Ray Illingworth’s England, were humbled by Ajit Wadekar’s team of dedicated boys," they said over telephone from USA.
"Finally we decided to make cricket visible. On theme “let’s talk and smell cricket from our past and cherish memories, the heroes of 1971 were felicitated. There were no monetary motives, we just wanted to offer our respect to these great Indian heroes who heralded the dawn of a new chapter in the history of Indian cricket,” said Mr. Guha. (Photo: Deccan Chronicle)
The players who marked their presence were Ajit Wadekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Farokh Engineer, Chetan Chauhan, Karsan Ghavri, B.S. Chandrasekhar, Yajurvindra Singh and Padmakar Shivalkar. (Photo: Deccan Chronicle)
"Even though all weren’t part of Wadekar’s team, Dilip Vengsarkar, Karsan Ghavri and Chetan Chauhan had been invited for their contribution to Indian cricket in the late 70s and 80s. The super talented Padmakar Shivalkar, who could not make it to the Indian Test team because of the reasons whatsoever, had also been invited for his silent contribution to Indian cricket," added Anjan Mitra.
"We, however, missed cricket legends like Dilip Sardesai, Eknath Solkar, M.L.Jaisimha, Krishnamoorthy, Ashok Mankad and many others who are no longer with us. Gundappa Vishwanath and Abid Ali were not able to attend due to health reasons and/or prior commitments."
"Sadly, Jagmohan Dalmiya passed away few hours before the event, and we had observed “one-minute” silence before the event here at San Marino Club, Troy, Michigan," he signed off.
