England has successfully hosted the first three editions of the ODI Cricket World Cup. In 1987, the fourth edition of the World Cup was played. But in 1987, the World Cup was hosted jointly for India and Pakistan in place of England. But the story behind hosting by India and Pakistan is very fun.
The biggest hand behind the World Cup in the sub-continent is the NKP Salve, former president of the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI). Actually, Salve was invited to watch the final match between India and the West Indies in the 1983 World Cup. When Salve reached there, he asked the officials of the England Cricket Board (ECB) to demand some extra match tickets for the other members of the BCCI but the ECB refused to give him a ticket. Salve felt very bad about this and also suffered pain.
World Cup Flashback – Some Unheardy Tales
After the Indian team won the World Cup, when Salve and Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Air Marshal Noor Khan were luncheon together, Salve said in the talk “Wish India also had big tournaments like World Cup.” In response, Noor Khan said, “Why can not we play the World Cup in our country?” Then Salve said, “How will India and Pakistan meet together if the World Cup is organized?”
But this was not easy because the ICC gave the veto power to England and Australia, which was almost impossible to organize a World Cup outside of England. To organize this World Cup, it became a joint committee of Cricket Board of India and Pakistan whose chairman Salve was elected.
India has given a great way to take the ICC in its favor. Actually 28 countries were members of the ICC. Of these, only 7 countries played Test cricket, while 21 countries did not get Test Playing status. In the bid of money, India offered more money than the England to those teams which play or even can’t play the test matches. India has given Test-playing nations about four times more than England, while those who do not play Tests will be given 5 times more money.
The ICC was shocked by this proposal of India and India-Pakistan came together to win the World Cup event by 16-12.
Interestingly, India and Pakistan did not have as much money as they had said in the proposal. In front of the Cricket Board of the two countries, there was now a big problem for raising money and for this, they talked to many multi-national foreign companies, which included companies such as Hinduja, Coca-Cola and Gillette. All these raised their hands. It is said that there was a need of about 4 crore rupees for the successful organizing of this World Cup which was difficult to manage.
Reliance Textiles, India’s largest company, has teamed up with India and Pakistan during this difficult time. The BCCI kept its World Cup proposal in front of Dhirubhai Ambani and Reliance accepted the offer on this condition, if India had a World Cup, then Reliance would be the sponsor of every department. Anil Ambani has led this World Cup project from RIL.
Reliance Company agreed to give 2.18 million pounds for the World Cup, which was then a huge amount. Reliance, another sub-company, ‘Mudra’ also branded inside the stadium, due to which a large crowd of viewers gathered in the stadium to watch the match.
This 1987 World Cup was a very successful event with the help of Reliance. When the match-rate matches began to increase in the popularity of this World Cup, many other Indian companies also tried to join hands with the BCCI, but the BCCI president Salve denied these companies by saying, “Whenever we needed any company We did not come forward and now the World Cup sponsor’s responsibility will not be left to anyone except Reliance. “
