Now we know how Gordon Greenidge had felt like 25 years ago when what he thought was an out-swinger darted back a mile to take his off-stump, starting India off towards its greatest cricketing glory.

Almost everyone at today’s celebration of the 1983 World Cup victory behaved like that freak ball by Balwinder Singh Sandhu, with legendary foes going gaga in each other’s praise. And an excess of champagne had nothing to do with it.

Kapil Dev dripped gratitude to cricket chief Sharad Pawar for holding the silver jubilee party — so what if the board had sacked him from the National Cricket Academy after he joined the breakaway Indian Cricket League, and removed his picture from his home ground?

“I must congratulate the board and its president Sharad Pawar for hosting such a reception for us,” the captain of the 1983 side beamed. “Frankly, we never expected to get such treatment.”

Bull’s eye on that one: the board had initially refused to organise the event just to avoid honouring Kapil and three of his ’83 mates who have joined the ICL.

Maybe it was the Rs 25 lakh the board handed each of the 14 Cup heroes? No, Kapil said it was the “love” that counted.

“Everybody needs money but it is not everything in life,” he said. “It is the love and affection that is more important. I am overwhelmed by the way the board has remembered us for what we did in 1983.”

Neither love nor cash, though, awaits the current cricketers who hitched their stars to Kapil, now chairman of the ICL executive board. A few hours before the party began, the board had banned English county teams that have ICL players in their ranks from its newest cash cow, the Twenty20 Champions League.

But Kapil wasn’t over. He virtually credited Sunil Gavaskar, with whom he had feuded through most of the ’80s, with inspiring the Cup victory.

Gavaskar was “our hero” Kapil said. “He taught us to win and inspired every one of our generation.”

Sunny, not to be outdone, saluted Kapil as “still the greatest cricketer India has ever produced”.

“The way people follow Sachin (Tendulkar) today, we used to follow Kapil at that time. He is the man who showed us the way. The time when Kapil lifted the trophy was the greatest memory of my life,” the former opening batsman said.

If Kapil could praise Pawar and the board, could Mohinder Amarnath, Man-of-the-Match in that final, be left behind?

He plonked himself beside former board president and selector Raj Singh Dungarpur, a man he had called a “joker” for running a vendetta against him. They were seen smiling and exchanging jokes for about five minutes.

All it needed was for Greenidge to turn up and embrace Sandhu, saying how marvellous it felt getting bowled by a beauty like that.