Lata helped BCCI raise money for Kapil’s Devils

This is one concert Lata Mangeshkar remembers fondly and instantly.

Sometime in the month of August, 25 years ago, India’s nightingale held a concert at New Delhi’s Indraprastha Stadium to raise funds so that a cash-strapped cricket board could award prize money to members of Kapil Dev’s champion side.

Ask her about the concert and she takes a trip down memory lane. Incidentally, Mangeshkar also witnessed the final at Lord’s.

NKP Salve, the then president of the BCCI, requested her to hold a concert in order to raise funds as the cricket board’s coffers were empty.

“How can I forget that concert? Salve asked me if I would sing at a concert because they wanted to raise money for the cricketers,” recalls Mangeshkar.

Nowadays, the BCCI is rolling in money. Each member of the 1983 World Cup-winning squad will be given a cheque of Rs 25 lakh at a felicitation ceremony that will be held at the Taj Palace hotel in the capital this Sunday.

There is also talk of the chief sponsor handing over Rs 10 lakh for each player at the dinner to be organised at Lord’s on June 25.
However, Lata is quick to put things in perspective.

“Now the cricketers are earning in crores. Magar us jamane ek lakh bahut paisa hota tha,” Mangeshkar says, referring to the Rs 1 lakh that was handed over to each member of Kapil’s Devils.

The who’s who of Delhi attended the concert and cheered her. She remembers singing her “favourite songs at the concert”.

“It was August 17, if I remember correctly and a lot of people attended the concert. I remember that Rajiv Gandhi too was among them,” the singing legend recalls. The BCCI made Rs 20 lakh from ticket collections alone, while in all about Rs 55 lakh was raised.
“I love the game and I agreed to do the concert immediately.

There were no other reasons for it. I was happy that BCCI could collect the required amount of money and give it to the cricketers. I was really satisfied after doing the concert and it still remains one of my favourites.

I was proud to do something for the cricketers who brought such an honour for the country,” she says.

The BCCI has invited Mangeshkar for the felicitation function to be held on Sunday. However, she has politely declined the invitation with a ‘Thank you’ attached to it.