In June 2023, the Indian World Cup winning Team of 1983 issued this statement: "We are distressed and disturbed at the unseemly visuals of our champion wrestlers being manhandled. We are also most concerned that they are thinking of dumping their hard-earned medals into the river Ganga. Those medals have involved years of effort, sacrifice, determination and grit and are not only their own but the nation's pride and joy."

On 19 November 2023, Kapil's Devils, as those champions were fondly called, did not receive even an invitation to watch the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

As a sports fan, I am angry.

Grace. Good manners. Gratitude. Too much to ask for from those peddling jingoism in the name of cricket.

Nostalgia, they say, is a good antidote for anger. So let me share with you what I was doing on 25 June 1983. Frame by frame.

I was 22. My two brothers along with four of our buddies (we used to work for a magazine edited by Tiger Pataudi called Sportsworld) decided to watch the Prudential World Cup final together. So we all assembled at the O'Brien family home in Jamir Lane in Kolkata.........

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