It's 25 years to the day since India triggered a cricket tsunami by winning the 1983 World Cup at Lord's.
The heroes of that triumph have considerably greyed and even gone in opposite directions (ICL and IPL for instance), but the significance of their heroics have neither dimmed nor dulled.
Take Kapil Dev's historic 175 for example. Or his catch to dismiss a blatantly arrogant Viv Richards if you like. Even Mohinder Amarnath's gentle off-cutters, Balwinder Singh Sandhu's late inswingers, Krish Srikkanth's audacious batting or Roger Binny and Madan Lal's modest but honest efforts.
It was the most balanced team of its era with each one big-hearted, strong-willed and fiercly determined. The images of their untiring efforts make a brilliant collage in the mind's eye.
That victory is undoubtedly India's greatest sporting moment. It not only revolutionised the landscape of cricket in the country but also ushered in a new sporting ethos in a nation singularly lacking real heroes and long starved of success.
A year later, P T Usha sparked a athletic revolution even though she missed a bronze medal by one-hundreth of a second in the 400m hurldes at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Elsewhere, Leander Paes in tennis, Vishwanathan Anand in chess and Geet Sethi in snooker were arriving on the horzion as new hopes of a nation in sporting transition.
Paes went on to win the junior Wimbledon crown, Anand became India's first Grand Master and later the world champion and Sethi followed in his footsteps reaching the apex in snooker and billiards.
I admit to be sounding partisan and even slightly melodramatic here, but believe me it is a story worth telling. I was only a long distance witness to India's cricket triumph but by the time Paes, Anand and Sethi took wings, I was part and parcel of the system as a sports writer.
I watched India's greatest cricket triumph in a match box-like flat in Bombay and on a battered black-and-white TV. Anand gave me my first big interview after winning his maiden national title and I can still make inspiring stories of Paes's and Sethi's sporting feats.
But one story I may have missed must be of Sunil Valson. Remember him? It may ring a jarring note here, but this also is a story worth telling simply because it was not told well enough earlier.
It is indeed sad that a nation which is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its greatest cricket triumph is conveniently fogetting a name which was part of that victorious team. Yes, Valson was the 14th member of the 1983 Lords of Lord's team.
Valson was a lower-order right hand batsman and a fiery left-arm medium fast bowler who played first class cricket for Delhi and Railways (75 matches, 376 runs for an average of 9.40 and 212 wickets at an average of 25.35). He was playing in county cricket in England when he was summoned to join the Indian World Cup team.
But Valson did not get to play a single match and he was unceremoniously dropped after the World Cup, and then confined to history books. The 49-year-old today holds the unenviable record of possessing a World Cup medal without having played a single one-day international.
Perhaps the only other cricketer who can come close to matching Valson's feat is Australia's off-spinner Nathan Hauritz, who replaced Shane Warne after the leg-spinner was banned from the 2003 World Cup for a positive drugs test.
Hauritz, like Valson, did not play in a single match as Australia went on to claim the World Cup. But, Hauritz, unlike Valson, is fortunate enough to have played in eight one-dayers.
I'm not sure if Valson will be part of the Indian team which will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of their greatest triumph at the Lord's later this week. If he isn't, it's just not cricket.
Talking of the 1983 World Cup reminds me of a quote from historian Ramachandra Guha. "Had Greenidge not left that ball alone, hockey would still be our national game. We had won in '75 and '80." I remember Guha writing somewhere. A poignant point worth pondering over amidst partying.
