Lata Mangeshkar, though a legendary singer was also a huge fan of cricket. She has also been vocal about the same both in person and on Twitter. She has also expressed the fact that she is a huge fan of Sachin and his century scoring. But a lot of people do not know her tryst with the celebrations after team India’s first major global cricket triumph, the 1983 World Cup victory.
The story
When the Indian team won the first-ever World Cup in 1983, the BCCI wanted to facilitate them and aid the celebration but they were cash strapped. It was then that cricket administrator Raj Singh Dungarpur turned to Lata Mangeshkar for help.
Union minister NKP Salve, who was President of BCCI then, revealed that in Raj Singh Dungarpur’s biography, “Raj Singh came up with a brilliant idea of requesting Lata Mangeshkar to do a musical program in Delhi to raise money for the purpose, as the BCCI was not flush with funds in those days.”
Lata didi went on to say “I said I will definitely do it. I reached Delhi on 17th August and I did a special show. Suresh Wadekar and Nitin Mukesh, son of Mukesh Bhaiya also supported in this show. Rajiv Gandhi was also present in that show,”.
The highlight of the concert was a special song composed by Pandit Hridyanath Mangeshkar, her brother. This song ‘Bharat Vishwa Vijeta’ saw the cricketers also sing along on the stage. The concert ended up raising Rs. 20 lakh, which was a huge amount in 1983. Lata Mangeshkar did not charge a penny for the performance.
Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar passed away after a 28-day-long battle with Covid-19, pneumonia, and related issues on Sunday morning, leaving behind a legacy that will be hard to match.
