New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during a book launch event in Delhi spoke about cricket and how India winning the 1983 World Cup was an inflexion point. Speaking at the release of former Indian cricketer Mohinder Amarnath’s memoir ‘Fearless’, Jaishankar said, “…I think nobody has any doubt that 1983 was the inflexion point. It was not just the inflexion point, but the man of the match of the inflexion point.”

“Now, there are some younger people in the room who may not really understand how big 1983 was… Countries have won the World Cup, not just us. Pakistan won it at one point and Sri Lanka won it at one point. But nowhere else was it as big an inflexion point as it was in the history of cricket. Because, if you look at India’s role in world cricket after 1983, it fundamentally changed,” EAM Jaishankar said.

During the event, Jaishankar also used cricket analogy to describe India’s foreign policy towards Pakistan at the current hour.

The EAM used the cricket analogy when he was asked a question on India’s tour to Pakistan in 1982-83 when it played six test matches.

Describing India’s foreign policy with respect to Pakistan in today’s time, Jaishankar said, “You said you played them better because, from the traditional side of the position, you now move to an open-chested position. I couldn’t have found a better description of our Pakistan policy than that.”