37 years ago, a young kid me, with the rest of India and the world, cried out in awe and disbelief as India won the cricket World Cup in 1983. Absolutely no one expected the team to achieve victory against the West Indies, double winners of the World Cup, and undoubtedly, the best team out there at that time. 

As a cricket fan, I look back at that tournament with so much joy. But as a corporate leader, I also see some valuable lessons that can be drawn from that astonishing triumph.

How India won the silverware

Before jumping into learning, please indulge me as I try to relive that roller-coaster ride. 

As many know, India went into the tournament as virtual no-hopers. The team had a couple of truly world-class players in Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar, the latter not in his element then. But that apart, it’s fair to say the world did not really fear any other player. The team was also inexperienced because as a nation we had played very few (and won even fewer) matches. Then the tournament began.

The first brick was laid in the team’s first match against West Indies, which they won by 34 runs. That time, the Caribbean Kings were almost invincible, and the Indian players got a huge confidence boost by defeating them. The team then split matches with the two big teams in their group (Australia and the West Indies). A Kapil Dev-led miracle win against Zimbabwe got us into the semi-finals which we won handily. 

Everyone has seen the finals when the team pulled off an incredible ask to fulfill the dreams of millions. Although 184 seemed pretty easy for the feared West Indies batting line up, the Indian players worked together to shatter all expectations. A journey of 52 overs and 140 runs culminated with Amarnath trapping Michael Holding in front of the stumps. 

The historic win in 1983 sent ripples of excitement, success, and lots of hope for the common people, as well as the cricket community in India. 

The World Cup title in 1983, set India on the road to becoming a celebrated name. The team started being seen as worthy of respect. That respect turned into admiration in the 2000s, as India topped the charts in all the forms of the game. The stamp of that dominance was when we won the world cup again in 2011. Of course, today India is the global hub of cricket. Innovations like franchise tournaments are driven with India in mind. The commerce is largely Indian and India has an array of talented superstars that are the envy of the world.

And there are so many lessons for us in that journey! 

First, that success breeds success

Be it the automobile industry or the Indian IT sector, one significant success often paves the way to a chain of unprecedented success. 

For instance, take Y2K. Proficient developers and engineers from India played a prominent role in taming the millennium bug. That success drove the global emergence of Indian IT. Tech giants like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and Cognizant started working with confidence and gradually secured their place among the global leaders. Smaller companies, niche players, product development companies, BPOs, and back offices, the flood started. Today, according to IBEF, the value of India’s IT-BPM sector stands at $181 billion (as of 2019), and the sector contributes to 7.7% of the nation’s GDP (2017). 

To my mind, this ripple effect of success breeding success is caused by several, distinct factors

The confidence boost

One success for an individual, or an apparently-new industry, company, or team boosts the confidence levels to a great extent. This removes fears. It opens your mind to new possibilities. Once you know that you CAN win, it becomes easier for you to focus on the “how”. Looking back, India’s win against the reigning champs in the first match itself ultimately paved the way to historic success.

The “need” to win

 Of course, you love the winning feeling. So much so that you want to win again. That gives your efforts a “purpose”. It defines your end-goals. With that clear, you’re willing to go that extra mile, push that little harder, to get there. India’s road to cricket dominance post-1983 reflects this desire. We went on to win a significant World Championship of Cricket tournament in Australia in 1985 and then on to new glories because we “wanted” to win. 

Experience of winning

Success demands, not only hard work but the right strategies as well. Winning adds the experience of building those strategies to the ledger. If you can utilize that experience to create robust strategies for your future endeavors, half the game is won. Success becomes the result of a considered thought exercise, careful strategy development, and a lot of small mistakes and recoveries. The ’83 team was very instinctive but the careful development of Indian cricket post that win was based on a lot of strategic thought. 

Mistakes are crucial

As Albert Einstein sarcastically said, “The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas”. To my mind, the contribution of mistakes is underrated in driving success. Knowing that you can win despite having made mistakes gives wings to your ideas. You become more willing to take calculated risks, overcome the impact of mistakes, and develop innovative ideas from them. One of the most celebrated matches on India’s march in 1983 was the 2nd leg against outsiders Zimbabwe. We started the “must-win” game disastrously and slipped to 17 for 5. Kapil Dev launched into one of the great one-day innings of all time after that and India went on to win. Imagine the self-belief recovering from such a situation would have given the team. 

There are a couple of other lessons too.

The value of teamwork

Whether it’s the 1983 World Cup final against West Indies or the Y2K battle, the successes can’t be attributed to a single person, group, or an individual team. Then, it was the combined efforts of everyone that created history. For instance, my favourite player Sunil Gavaskar failed with the bat, but he took 2 crucial catches. Sandhu took only 1 wicket, but that booming inswinger to get Gordon Greenidge let the doubts loose in the minds of the following batsmen. Similarly, in the corporate world, we need to focus on building teams of people with complementary skills, define their roles and responsibilities, and then help them perform. 

The importance of leadership 

Kapil Dev left his stamp on 1983. His incredible Zimbabwe innings takes the focus away from the magnificence of everything else he achieved. In that tournament, he achieved personal milestones as well as set leadership goals that people are still trying to follow. One of my favorite stories of the game is of the team meeting between innings where Kapil Dev is said to have exhorted everyone to win. He instilled the thought in the team that the game was not yet lost and that the other team still had to go out and get the runs. Then his game-changing effort to catch a rampant Viv Richards is the stuff of legend. His style of leadership was to inspire. And that’s a style that has timeless value.

On the 37th anniversary of India’s first-ever global victory in cricket, let us commit ourselves to win. Let’s look at the successes we have tasted and use them as springboards to more success. Let us innovate and drive ahead. In many ways, that’s what the world needs now.