For Sir Clive Lloyd, 1983 remains a melancholic memory that he has relived many times since. While the wound has healed with time, the scar remains. Chasing a record third consecutive World Cup title as captain, Lloyd was emphatic in declaring there was no question of complacency. The West Indians had lost to India in their opening match of the tournament, and knew what Kapil Dev and his men were capable of. India were not a team to be taken lightly. ‘They had beaten Australia and England on their way to the final and had some excellent all-round cricketers in the team,’ said Lloyd.
Speaking on Backstage With Boria, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of India’s World Cup win, Sir Clive said, ‘Bowling India out for 183 was a very good effort, and on most days, we would easily have chased that score down. But for cricket, however, it was a great result. It helped Indian cricket turn into something fundamentally different and world cricket, too, benefitted from this turnaround.’
He went on to add, ‘Even when we beat the Indians convincingly in the winter of 1983, we knew that it was only a matter of time before they became a cricketing superpower. The self-belief the World Cup victory had given Indian cricket had little parallel. It was great for your cricket.’
Excerpts from the conversation:
Boria: Sir Clive, your story. I mean, the story of creating a winning team, the story of leadership. Have you ever been discriminated against? And what has been your philosophy of leadership?
Clive Lloyd: Well, you have to have vision. You’ve got to be someone who’s going to lead from the front. You’ve got to be friendly with your players. You’ve got to trust them. They’ve got to trust you. And because I’ve come from the Islands, my situation was rather challenging. It was different to other captains of different countries. They come from one country, one language. We have fourteen different islands with different cultures and backgrounds, and you have to work together to get them to understand what is their role. Because some of them can be quite flamboyant. West Indians love having a go and so on, but you have to put a bit more professionalism into them. So, it was a difficult task, but a happy one because the results were tremendous.
Boria: Seventeen years and you barely lost anything. Was it also a statement of what sport can do? There has been discrimination based on colour. So was it also a statement of what people can do despite all the adversities?
Lloyd: Yes, the point is that you had to mould a team into a winning team. We had great teams in the past, but probably not as successful for such a long while. So, you took all the stuff that you knew and tried to put it together there and get players to work together. The point is that the team that I had, they were with me for eleven years, and then with Viv (Vivian Richards) for five. And they got accustomed to us winning. It was a situation at one stage, when we were going to play in other countries, we would ask ourselves how much will we beat them by? And it’s not if you will win. It is by how much. They were so confident. Sport is important to us all. It’s given me my upward mobility. Sport creates chances for people and changes people’s attitudes.
Boria: Coming back to the winning mantra, West Indies, for example, won the first two World Cups, multiple series, important ICC tournaments. What’s wrong with the Indian team, do you think? You watch them closely. Somehow, we don’t get over the line in ICC tournaments. We’ve got the biggest fan base. We’ve got a huge support for our sport. We have the IPL. But something is lacking. What do you think goes wrong? Is it pressure? Is it something else?
Lloyd: But you’re getting there. You’ve got to semifinals and finals and so on. You’ve qualified for multiple finals. I think the future could be very good for India because now, because of the IPL, you have a larger section of cricketers to choose from. And probably they’re getting an experience that the other players didn’t get, rubbing their shoulders with the ex-captains, ex-players, and successful players. So, the point is that probably in the future, India will have a tremendous one-day side. There is every reason to believe you will have a very good 50-overs side. You’ve got a terrific Test side, and it’s just a matter of time before you win a big tournament. Things go in cycles, and it will work in the future, I’m sure.
Boria: There is this constant referral to IPL, that on the one side is money, on the other side is national pride. Do you feel that because of franchise cricket, playing for the national team, for some people at least, is a sort of lesser priority? Is that a problem going forward?
Lloyd: No. I think we went to Kerry Packer because we didn’t know our worth. These guys now know what they’re worth. But I think that if IPL is such an important part of their lives, just give them a window so that they can play IPL. Yes, a window would be excellent, I think, because they’re earning a good living. And don’t forget, you’re giving your best part, the best days of your life to this sport. So why not be paid for it? When Michael Jordan and all these footballers were earning millions per month, nobody said anything about it. Why cricket should be different? The one thing I don’t want is that we, the West Indies, should not suffer because our players want to go to these different tournaments and you can’t stop them from doing that. It gives them a good future. But the point is that they should not do this to the detriment of playing for their country or their nation. And we suffer because we’re only five and a half million people. So if we groom twenty players and lose ten, it is like digging a hole to fill a hole. And I don’t want that. I want our best players to play, and I want them to play to their optimum. So, we must have a situation where players must want to play for their country.
Also Read: “My Mind was Completely Blank”: Kapil Dev on the Richards Catch