'Kapil was sure India will win on Saturday'

LUDHIANA: ''With each run scored in the match on Saturday night my heart beat faster in anticipation of what was going to happen next. I felt exactly the same in 1983 while watching the World Cup finals held at Lord's,'' said city-based industrialist Girish Kapoor. Kapoor, who has known Kapil Dev and Yashpal Sharma for over 30 years, boasts of even hosting the cricket star at his home more than once.
Even after winning the World Cup 28 years ago, both cricketers had met Kapoor at his residence and celebrated the victory. Talking to TOI, Kapoor got nostalgic and shared the memories he cherishes so many years down the line.
He said the Indian team of that time had once come to Ludhiana to inaugurate an imported machine in his factory. ''The team had come to Jalandhar to play a test series against Pakistan and Yashpal and Kapil brought the players to my place too,'' he shared, adding that Kapil had cut the ribbon. Sunil Gavaskar, Yashpal Sharma, Srikanth, Ravi Shastri, Sandeep Patil, Roger Binny, Syed Kirmani, L Sivramakrishnan had all accompanied the captain to Kapoor's factory. The industrialist recalled that Gavaskar had been very curious to know how the machine works and its various technicalities.
Kapoor said Kapil has stayed in touch with him always. ''Before leaving for the World Cup, even Kapil was not confident of getting the Cup home,'' he said, adding that he vividly remembers watching the 1983 finals with his family. ''India hadn't made a decent total so the whole family thought it will not be possible to win the game but as the game progressed one by one the wickets kept falling. It was as if India was playing against a club-level team and not the strongest team of the world,'' he said.
When Kapil achieved the mark of taking 434 wickets, Kapoor had called him tot he city and organized a function to honour him. ''I presented him a cheque worth Rs 4.34 lakh to celebrate the number of wickets he had taken. After that too Kapil has come home a couple of times,'' he said.
Talking about Saturday's World Cup match, Kapoor said he spoke to Kapil and asked what his gut feeling was. ''Kapil told me India will surely win. I had planned to see the entire match but when Sachin got out I switched off my TV,'' he said. But after some time Kapoor couldn't resist the desire to know what was Team India's condition was and grew happy to see India in a comfortable position. ''When India won the match my family and I started doing 'bhangra' because we were so excited about the victory,'' Kapoor said.