We have heard numerous stories from the India dressing room during the 2011 World Cup. There are various stories floating around how India scripted history at home and what the conversation between the players was like during the entire tournament. While most of those tales were inspiring and heart-warming, former India batter Gautam Gambhir has come up with a shocking revelation now.

Gambhir revealed that some of the senior members of the team had come to him ahead of the semifinals against Pakistan and told him that they need to win this World Cup not because they want to do it for the veterans or the team, but to end the conversation surrounding the 1983 World Cup winning team. Various members of that Kapil Dev-led Indian team that won the World Cup in 1983 were panelists on various media platforms during that mega event in India.

“Two or three senior players came to me and said ‘we need to win this tournament because we have to take the conversation away from 1983. We have to finish their thing off,’ Gambhir revealed the senior’s remarks while speaking at the Idea Exchange with The Indian Express.

“I said I haven’t come here to finish anyone. I haven’t come here to shorten someone’s line. I want to win this to extend our line. If the media is giving them jobs from 1983 to 2011, that’s the media’s problem, not ours. We need to win the World Cup because we want this country to be happy,” Gambhir recalled the incident.

The former India opener, who scored 97 in the final against Sri Lanka in 2011, feels that this is something that needs to change in the future. India defeated Pakistan by 29 runs in the semi-final at Mohali and then went on to beat Sri Lanka by six wickets in the final in Mumbai to become the first team to win the World Cup at home. The win also ended India’s long wait of 28 years for another World Cup.