Former Cricketer Madan Lal: Lata Mangeshkar was an avid cricket fan, we lost Indian cricket’s biggest fan

Cricket and Melody Queen Lata Mangeshkar had a special connect. 1983 World Cup winning Indian cricket team member Madan Lal recalls how the late singer agreed to do the Freedom Concert to help Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) arrange for reward money for the team.

“It is very sad day for us. She is no longer with us but her memories will always stay with especially the Indian cricket team that won the World Cup in 1983,” Lal tells us.

Lal feels that her death is a great loss to Indian cricket. “Lata Mangeshkar was the biggest fan of Indian cricket, we lost Indian cricket’s biggest fan. Whenever India would win a match, she would always express her happiness, even now. She has been following the game since the very beginning and she was an avid follower,” he adds.

After the Kapil Dev-led team beat the West Indies in the finals of the World Cup in 1983, the BCCI wanted to felicitate and honour the team. However, the cash-strapped board did not have enough funds for it. It was then that cricket administrator Raj Singh Dungarpur turned to Mangeshkar for help.

The 70-year-old further adds, “She loved the sport. I met her in London during the World Cup at someone’s place and realised that she had a great understanding of the sport. She was a true fan. The next time I met her was for the concert that she had done for us. We are so grateful to her for such a gesture she showed for us all players by doing a concert for us. We all got ₹ 1 lakh because of her.”

During the rehearsals for the concert, he recalls that she as an absolute professional. “She was such a perfectionist, she rehearsed for two days. She was very meticulous. She made us all rehearse where to stand and what to do before the concert many times.”