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Legends from across eras come together to celebrate the best the game had to offer

Legends from across eras come together to celebrate the best the game had to offer.

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Legends from across eras come together to celebrate the best the game had to offer

Clive Lloyd. The name throws up the image of a languid, lazy wildcat leading from the front with a spectacular century to win West Indies the inaugural World Cup in 1975.

Kapil Dev. Conjure with the words and the smoke reveals the vision of a man running 30 yards back to take a catch that dismisses Viv Richards and paves the way for 60-1 outsiders India winning in 1983.

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Allan Border. Cut to a hard, workman-like Australian leading a bunch of young, eager little-known wards destined to be world champions in 1987 and stars of the future.

Arjuna Ranatunga. Meet a rotund, affable zen master with the heart of a lion and the self-belief to lead his team to the 1996 World Cup, changing the 15-over formula of one-day cricket forever and giving hope to his war-torn nation.

Steve Waugh. Seven unforgettable words boom in the distance. "Mate, you've just dropped the World Cup." A story that will be remembered as one of cricket's greatest anecdotes as Australia won the 1999 World Cup, with Herschelle Gibbs's dropped catch destined to haunt South African cricket forever.

And finally, Ricky Ponting. Once a champion, twice a winning captain, and the best batsman in a team of great players that made the 2003 and 2007 Aussies a modern-day avatar of Don Bradman's Invincibles.

These six World Cup winning captains, all at one place, joining hands with other stalwarts such as Sunil Gavaskar, Sourav Ganguly, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Azharuddin, Aamer Sohail, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh, made the Aaj Tak Salaam Cricket Conclave, held in New Delhi on October 18, a one-of-a-kind assembly. It was the first time in history that a forum had managed to bring together legends from across eras, celebrating the best that cricket had to offer from 1975 to 2011. It was also a telling reminder of how cricket has transformed rapidly over the years, from a time when the one-day game was just taking root in the mid-1970s to today's era of quick T20 solutions and the frenzy of the annual Indian Premier League.

It was no surprise that each of the actors present revelled in their roles. "India were much better than us at Lord's on June 25, 1983. We should have won the match having bowled them out for 183. But they did brilliantly to turn the tables. Come to think of it, it was a result that did wonders for world cricket," Lloyd said to a rapturous applause.

"Mike Gatting was batting brilliantly and seeing that none of my teammates were putting their hands up, I decided to turn my arm over. The first ball pitched way outside leg stump and Mike tried to reverse sweep, only to be caught behind off his shoulder. I feel sad for him for he has got a lot of flak for that stroke," said Border, remembering the 1987 final against England. Other stories that came to light were that Waugh and his Australian team had no idea they had reached the final after their 1999 semi-final had ended in a dramatic tie, and Ponting didn't know that the hero of the 2007 World Cup final Adam Gilchrist had stuck a squash ball in his glove until after he had reached his century.

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The past blended with the present when Gavaskar and Border-the first two players in history to amass 10,000 Test runs-discussed what India needs to do when they tour Australia in the lead-up to the 2015 World Cup, and when Pakistani cricketers Sohail and Inzamam-ul-Haq chose India ahead of Pakistan as the favourites when they play each other in the high-octane first game of the 2015 edition. Ponting, true to his nickname of Punter, picked India and Australia as possible finalists for the 2015 final.

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All in all, the conclave was many things-a coming together of greats, an opportunity to ascertain what lies ahead from players who have done it all, and a day spent recounting anecdotes about the legends and their teams, told by the legends themselves. But, perhaps, most of all, it was an opportunity to think back at what first attracted us to cricket: the romance, the nostalgia, perhaps the vision of a Kapil Dev running in to bowl to a Clive Lloyd without 3D graphics taking over the television screen. There were no fancyreplays then and no third umpire. No stump microphones or hawk eye to portray on field umpires as failed mortals every now and then. When it was a simpler sport, played in a simpler time but watched and enjoyed nonetheless by passionate followers of the game.

Follow the writer on Twitter @BoriaMajumdar

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