Sir Richard John Headley, regarded as one of the greatest cricketers, was so impressed after seeing Kabir Khan’s ’83’ on an OTT platform that years later he emailed Kapil Dev, who returned home with the 1983 World Cup. He was the captain of the Indian team. Sir Richard wrote to Kapil Dev: “It’s been many years since we’ve seen or heard from each other. Just finished watching ’83’ on Netflix and was looking forward to getting in touch with you.”
The New Zealander said: “I really enjoyed the film and am reliving the 1983 World Cup. It was a very inspiring film and a great story that made me remember that moment again.”
Incidentally, Sir Richard did not represent his country at the 1987 World Cup as he stated that he did not like playing in India. In his email, Sir Richard mentioned that the film gave him the opportunity to delve deeper into Kapil Dev as a person and how he inspired his team through his words and actions on the pitch.
“Without reviewing the record, I remember your brilliant tackles (and scoring) against Zimbabwe and the team’s low scoring in the final and how India rallied to beat the Windies,” he said.
Sir Richard said it was great to see you and Jimmy Mohinder Amarnath playing active roles in the film. He praised Ranveer Singh for portraying Kapil Dev well.
Sir Richard also praised the film for the techniques used to recreate the historic World Cup. Sir Richard said, “Watching the game, acting with some real film footage and still camera shots embellished the film and brought the story to life.”