In a surprising turn of events, the iconic former Indian cricket captain Kapil Dev has revealed that he was not invited to the celebration honoring ex-World Cup-winning captains during the ongoing 2023 World Cup final.
Despite leading India to its first-ever World Cup victory in 1983, Kapil Dev was notably absent from the prestigious event at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Speaking to a local India news channel, Kapil Dev expressed his disappointment at not receiving an invitation to the event. "I wasn't invited. They didn't call me, so I did not go. As simple as that. I wanted the whole '83 team to be there with me, but I guess due to the fact that it's such a big event and people are so busy handling responsibilities, sometimes they forget," remarked Dev in a video circulating on social media.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had planned to honor and invite all ex-World Cup-winning captains as part of the celebrations surrounding the highly anticipated summit clash between India and Australia.
It was under Kapil Dev's captaincy that India lifted the coveted World Cup trophy for the first time in 1983, defeating the star-studded West Indies in a memorable and historic encounter.
The exclusion of the iconic skipper from the celebration has sparked speculation and drawn attention to the organizational oversights that occasionally accompany such grand events.