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Cricket Players'Few senior players had told me ‘we need to win this WC to take conversation away from 1983'': Gambhir's huge revelation
Gautam Gambhir revealed yet another story from the 2011 World Cup campaign, but this time made a rather shocking revelation. His pertained to the World Cup semi-final against Pakistan in Mohali.
Over the last 11 years, world cricket have been treated to innumerable stories from the India dressing room on how they scripted history on home soil to lift the World Cup and on Monday, former India batter and a member of that World Cup-winning team, Gautam Gambhir revealed yet another story, but this time made a rather shocking revelation. His pertained to the World Cup semi-final against Pakistan in Mohali.
Speaking at the Idea Exchange with The Indian Express, Gambhir revealed that a few of the senior players in the team, he did not name them, had come to him and said that the team needs to win the World Cup. Gambhir mentioned that it had nothing to do with the team wanting to do it for the veterans in the team or end the long drought for a second World Cup for Indian cricket.
Gambhir, who had later scored a match-winning 97 in the World Cup 2011 final, revealed that seniors wanted to bring home the trophy to take the conversation away from the Kapil Dev-led 1983 team and members of that team were then part of the commentary or discussions panels on various media platforms.
“Two or three senior players came to me and said ‘we need to win this tournament because we have to take the conversation away from 1983. We have to finish their thing off,’ Gambhir revealed the senior’s remarks.
“I said I haven’t come here to finish anyone. I haven’t come here to shorten someone’s line. I want to win this to extend our line. If the media is giving them jobs from 1983 to 2011, that’s the media’s problem, not ours. We need to win the World Cup because we want this country to be happy,” Gambhir recalled what he told them. “That is something which needs to change in the future.”
India had defeated Pakistan in the semi-final by 29 runs in Mohali before they beat Sri Lanka by six wickets in the final in Mumbai to become the first team to lift the World Cup on home soil. The trophy also ended India's 28-year-long wait.
