In the year 1983, David Frith, a then editor of Wisden, a cricket reference book of UK, had written an article, in reference to the teams who would be gathering for the 1983 World Cup and those who would be incapable of winning the tournament, including India. Frith was giving his forthcoming analysis based on the past records of India with the cup. As India had won only one match in 1975`s cup against East Africa, and endured with the remaining two. And as of the 1979 World Cup, India had won none of their games but even beaten by the competing team, Sri Lanka.

David was tracking India's past records and hence, came with the statement which was written in an article of Wisden that said, "I'd be happy to eat my words if India progress beyond the league stage". Frith was pretty sure about his words as it takes a full bag of confidence to state those lines. However, the article got an unsupportive response across the globe including Canada.

After India won the 1983 World Cup, a reader of Frith essay named 'Man Singh' from the USA, reminded David of his over-confident article and suggested to him that he should retract his words.

Not only this, but Singh also persuaded him to literally eat his words with a hot or cold beverage of his choice. And guess what, the editor actually took a photo of himself eating the article with a beverage.

It was 37 years ago when India amazed everyone after winning the third world cup and made David realize that his analysis based on history is not always something to rely on. David passed a statement back then that there was no malice in his words when he said India should withdraw from the world cup. Well, its rightly said, that it's better late than never.