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The entire nation continues to reel with the sad demise of India’s legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar. After battling against COVID and Pneumonia, the Nightingale of India breathed her last, yesterday, i.e., Feb 6. She was 92. As we are yet to come to terms with the ultimate loss, unknown facts and never-heard-before stories about the late singer are surfacing on the web. One of which is about her helping the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 1983. Apart from being a great singer, Lata Mangeshkar was an enthusiastic cricket lover.
Let us take you down memory lane and tell you a story when the Bharat Ratan Awardee helped BCCI raise Rs 20 lakh for a very exciting cause. Not many know, after winning the World Cup against mighty West Indies in 1983, on June 25 at Lord’s, BCCI, which is now the richest board in the world, didn’t have enough funds to felicitate or honour Team India for their efforts. In ’83, NKP Salve was the president of the board and to figure out funds, he turned towards Raj Singh Dungarpur for help, who then asked singer and cricket love Lataji for the helping hand.
Revealing in Dungarpur’s biography, Union minister NKP Salve, stated, “Raj Singh came up with a brilliant idea of requesting Lata Mangeshkar to do a musical programme in Delhi to raise money for the purpose, as the BCCI was not flush with funds in those days.”
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This is when Lata Mangeshkar decided to perform a 2-hour-long concert in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi raising Rs 20 Lakh which was enough to honour a 14-member Indian cricket team. BCCI collected enough money to felicitate Team India with Rs 1 lakh each as a cash award.
Member of India’s 1983 World cup winning squad, Sunil Valson told Times of India, “It was a very decent sum in those days. We would otherwise save up tour money and daily allowance for that month and it came to barely Rs 60,000. I remember some people said we will give you Rs 5000, some said Rs 10,000 and it was very disrespectful at times. But then Lata ji sang in that concert. What a function it was and one of the most memorable evenings to watch her sing live.”
Confirming the same to a radio show, Lata Mangeshkar had also revealed in her old interview, “I said I will definitely do it. I reached Delhi on 17th August and I did a special show. Suresh Wadekar and Nitin Mukesh, son of Mukesh Bhaiya also supported in this show. Rajiv Gandhi was also present in that show.”
All we now have are her memories with us forever!
