The Cricket World Cup: Indian imprint all the way (आख़िर पैसा बोलता है।)

India begins its World Cup 2019 campaign today and the primacy that this sporting event has received, over the years particularly post the 1983 World Cup, is because of the stellar role played by the political and business leadership of India. Most Indians, particularly the Indian media, have two constant punching bags - the Politicians and the Businessmen, who are blamed for anything and almost everything, including sports, that is wrong with India. But then how many of us are aware that the seeds for the unprecedented scale of success, which the Cricket World Cup has been receiving over the years, were actually sown by a combination of these very people - the Indian politician and an industrialist. Perhaps not many. While majority of Indians are well informed about the game of cricket, their cricketing heroes, ICC Cricket World Cup - including our World Cup victories in 1983 and 2011 - but not many are aware as to what has made India the leader in the administration of this sporting event. Therefore, this post on Cricket is not about the game per se but about the robust foundations that went into making India a predominant player in the international cricketing arena and for paying respect to some of the people who made this possible - NKP Salve, Mrs Gandhi and Dhirubhai Ambani.

The Cricket World Cup, a flagship event of the international cricket calendar, is one of the world's most viewed sporting events. The participation of tens of millions Indians, and several hundreds of thousands of overseas Indians as spectators, the companies who sponsor the game, the men who manage and influence this game is what makes the World Cup so very special. This greatest of the sporting spectacle, The Cricket World Cup, which the whole of India is now perhaps glued to, is now hosted on rotation basis by different Cricket playing nations once every four years or so. It was not the case when this event began in 1975. The first three versions of the Cricket World Cups - The Prudential World Cups (named after the sponsors) - were hosted only by England in 1975, 1979 and 1983. Until then England alone was thought to be capable of organising huge resources to stage an event of such magnitude. The first three World Cup matches consisted of 60, six-ball, over per team, played during the daytime in traditional form, with the players wearing cricket whites and using red cricket balls. The power dynamics of the game of cricket was mostly with England who were unwittingly supported each time and every time by their arch cricketing adversary the Australians, while other teams including India were mostly bystanders. The fourth World Cup in 1987 changed all of this for good and ever since India has been a dominant player in administering and controlling the game of Cricket.

The Reliance CUP 1987.

The 1987 World Cup marked the first steps towards altering international cricket's power dynamics, and gave birth to the rotation system for hosting the World Cups. The Indian Cricket administrators, led by NKP Salve, buoyed by India winning the 1983 Prudential World Cup, emboldened their bid for the staging rights for the 1987 World Cup, jointly with Pakistan. Moving the World Cup away from England was not so simple, since it involved one of the most complicated negotiations, unprecedented financial resources, political manoeuvring not just between India and Pakistan but also with other cricket playing nations, the ICC, leaders, politicians, cricket administrators and businessmen. It was the combined spirit and efforts of Dhirubhai Ambani, N K P Salve and Mrs Indira Gandhi who made this impossible looking task possible. But most unfortunately, their contribution has not adequately been acknowledged by the cricket loving fans in India. The three of them showed how politicians, professionals and industrialists can help to shape the world through the medium of sports.

It all started with one phone call from the PMO to Dhirubhai Ambani on one of those monsoon mornings in Mumbai, way back in 1983. Dhirubhai was asked to urgently meet Mrs Gandhi, the PM of India, within a couple of days. Dhirubhai did not know the reasons for the urgency of the meeting nor did he want to know, all he wanted was to take the earliest flight to meet the PM. The very next day he landed in Delhi and was at Mrs Indira Gandhi’s residence, at 10 Janpath to meet the prime minister. N K P Salve, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was also asked by the PMO to be present for the meeting. Salve was also a cabinet minister in Mrs Gandhi’s cabinet and was very highly rated by her for his integrity and commitment, both as a Minister and as a lawyer politician. Mrs Gandhi asked Dhirubhai whether he would financially support the initiative of her government to try and bring the Cricket World Cup to India. Dhirubhai Ambani, having heard the PM, realised that the image and prestige of India was at stake and with no hesitation whatsoever, agreed to bear all the financial liabilities associated with the event without even understanding what the scope was. He nodded in agreement and uttered, “Madam, yes, I would be too happy to give a blank cheque to cover the entire cost of the tournament since it is for a national cause.” Dhirubhai, the grand visionary that he was, had immediately realised that the Indian honour was at stake and for him this in itself was reason enough to offer a blank cheque to the PM. 

But then what prompted Mrs Gandhi to stake her claim for hosting the 1987 World Cup Cricket in India? Well it is an interesting story, which began at Lord’s on the 25th of June 1983, the day when Kapil’s men made history. The Indian team - the underdogs in the tournament with a ridiculously low possibility of winning any single match, let alone the tournament, had miraculously reached the finals and were to play the defending champions, the indomitable rampaging West Indies, led by their legendary captain Clive Lloyd’s at the Lord’s. India had defeated the hosts, England in the semi-final, to reach the finals. N K P Salve, the president of the BCCI, had requested the authorities at Lord’s to provide two tickets for the final, which were meant for Siddhartha Shankar Ray, the Indian High Commissioner to the US at the time, and his wife Maya. Most shockingly, the authorities at Lord’s had turned down the request of the BCCI president. He was not even provided the priced tickets let alone the complementary VIP passes to watch the finals. This was too embarrassing even for Salve, an epitome of gentlemanliness. The president of one of the finalist teams could not offer even two tickets to an Indian ambassador. It was at this instance that Salve, perhaps, decided not take this insult to his country lying down. As luck would have it, Indian team won the 1983 Prudential World Cup and Salve lost no time in taking the Indian winning team on their return to New Delhi from Heathrow, to meet the prime minister, Mrs Gandhi and it was during this meeting that Salve narrated about his insult to the PM and expressed his interest to consider hosting the next edition of the world cup in India. Salve also had informed the PM about his discussions of a joint bid for hosting this event with Pakistan, which he had with Pakistan's cricketing chief, Air Marshall Noor Khan.

The political commitment for the game shown by Mrs Gandhi was ably supported by her Pakistani counterpart. With financial and political commitments in place the ball was set rolling for luring the eight full members and 21 associate members of the ICC for agreeing to shift the World Cup from England to the Indian subcontinent. Every one of them including the players and cricketing boards were offered such an extraordinary financial allurement that it was just a matter of time that the English opposition was blow away and there was consensus in shifting the next World Cup to India. Most unfortunately when everything had fallen in place, Mrs Gandhi was assassinated in October 1984 and there was huge uncertainty on the continued political and financial commitments, which was not to be. Mr Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister and continued his patronage to the game. Dhirubhai assigned the work of managing this mega event to his younger son Anil Ambani, who did an admirable job in most professionally managing this entire event including providing more than adequate financial resources for the tournament. NKP Salve was later made the Chairman of the India-Pakistan Joint Managing Committee for the Reliance Cup. The massive success of that tournament saw the World Cup live up to its name as a world event played in all the continents. The Reliance Cup also marked a step in the shifting of the cricket headquarters from Lord's to Eden Gardens, culminating in the election of Jagmohan Dalmiya as the first Asian president of the ICC.

The Reliance Cup, was a major success with packed crowds and huge stadiums playing host to every single match. Both the host teams, India and Pakistan, performed exceptionally well with impressive performances in the group stage and ended up group toppers and qualified for the semi-finals. India lost in the Semi-finals to England, in a match that was played in Mumbai in front of a massive crowd. Pakistan too lost its semi-final match against Australia and in the finals played in front of a mammoth Eden garden crowd of more than 100,000, the Australians defeated the English team to begin their dominance over the cup. Ever since every single ICC World Cups have been a roaring success with huge audience, mostly Indians, and unprecedented sponsors for whom the ICC World Cup and so also the IPL are two extremely important events from the advertising standpoint. 

As India takes on South Africa in their inaugural 2019 World Cup match later today, it is time for us to look back and credit Mrs Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, NKP Salve, Anil and Dhirubhai Ambani, for their extraordinary political and business leadership, shown for the game of Cricket, which to every Indian is nothing short of a religion.