With the passing of Inderjit Singh Bindra, a link with a revolution in cricket that shifted the power base from England to India has been severed. For so long has India’s influence lasted and so profound has its impact been that it’s easy to forget their ascendancy is less than four decades old.

In the mid-1980s, N.K.P. Salve, Bindra and Jagmohan Dalmiya proposed that the World Cup, hosted thrice by England now be shifted to India and Pakistan.

The administrators dangled the carrot that the BCCI continues to dangle — money. They promised much more of it, and took advantage of the rule then that allowed associate members one vote each (Test nations had two). This meant that the 18 associate members had a big say since the full members were just seven.

Dalmiya and Bindra as a team were the spit and polish of Indian cricket, the enforcer and the planner. It was a combination that could be seen on the field of play too. Think Javed Miandad and Imran Khan, or Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar. Or Ian Botham and Mike Brearley.

The 1987 World Cup was........

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