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(Part 29.) Contenders and pretenders.
With 22 days to go to the 50th anniversary of the West Indies victory over Australia in the 1975 Cricket World Cup final, and having examined the credentials of the Caribbean side in great detail before considering the prospects of Australia and hosts England, let’s look at some of the key names among the other five competing teams.
Hadlee scored a 81-ball 99 in the first innings–the only half-century of the game–and followed up with 8-44 in 35 overs as England were skittled for 82 and 93, en route to losing by an innings.
Hadlee was still in his formative stages when the first Men’s World Cup came around, though.
Pakistan: As far as the London bookmakers were concerned, they were a real threat for the title, behind only the West Indies and England and ahead of Australia in their assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the contenders.
Led by Asif Iqbal, they had talent in abundance. However, their temperament on and off the field—there were almost always internal squabbles in the team at that time—was the greatest concern.
Their batting looked formidable with vice-captain Majid Khan at the top of the order and the likes of Zaheer Abbas, Mushtaq Mohammad, Wasim Raja and the captain himself to follow.
Javed Miandad was also there—more though for wrist-spin than the batting prowess, which would make him one of his country’s all-time greats over the next 21 years.
On the bowling side, experienced seamers Sarfraz Nawaz and Asif Masood led the effort although they were hampered by the absence of talented all-rounder Imran Khan for the critical fixture against the West Indies as he had exams at Oxford University on the same day.
New Zealand: Always operating under the radar, as they continue to do even now despite an impressive level of consistency in recent ICC tournaments, the Kiwis (they only adopted the ‘Black Caps’ nickname in 1998) were led by Glenn Turner.
Turner, New Zealand’s opening batsman, possessed an unusual batting grip which did not hamper his productivity in any way, as the West Indies experienced when the New Zealanders first toured the Caribbean in 1972.
Turner was, by some distance, the shining light in their batting line-up, although the likes of John Morrison and John Parker were well established in the middle order without garnering much attention on the global stage.
(via SportsCrunch.)
Geoff Howarth, who would lead the New Zealanders on their second visit to the West Indies in 1985, was in the early stages of his development as a solid contributor.
Seam bowling all-rounder Richard Hadlee, arguably his country’s greatest-ever cricketer, was also relatively new to international cricket and still some distance away from the consistent quality which would bring him the outstanding returns of a then world record 431 wickets from just 86 Tests.
India: Given their all-round strength on the field and considerable dominance off it now, it might be inconceivable to contemplate a team representing that nation at the first Men’s World Cup being almost clueless about the tactics of the format.
(via Wisden.)
Yet that’s exactly how they performed with opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar setting such a low bar for painfully slow scoring in their first match against England at Lord’s (we’ll get to the details later on in this series) that even the most flexible limbo dancer would have struggled to get below it.
Skippered by off-spinner Srinivas Venkataraghavan with another member of their great Test spin quartet in Bishen Singh Bedi for company, India had no fast bowling resources at all, which again is in stark contrast to what obtains now.
Karsan Ghavri, Abid Ali, Madan Lal and Eknath Solkar were the ones expected to take the shine off the ball.
Amarnath did little to distinguish himself at the 1975 World Cup.
However, eight years later, he was Man of the Match in India’s stunning upset of the West Indies in the 1983 final at Lord’s.
India’s batting revolved around Gavaskar and brother-in-law Gundappa Vishwanath while Anshuman Gaekwad and wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer, well acquainted with English conditions given his years with Lancashire on the English county circuit, were the support act.
There was also Mohinder Amarnath, but like so many others in their team, he would be almost anonymous.
Who would have possibly thought then that eight years later, he would be “Man of the Match” and part of an Indian team, together with Gavaskar and Madan Lal, which pulled off one of the greatest cricketing shocks of all in defeating the seemingly invincible hat-trick-seeking West Indies in the 1983 final at Lord’s?
The comparable price now, allowing for inflation, would be around £25 (TT$230).
The cheapest public ticket for Lord’s at the 2019 final was £95 (TT$874), the most expensive £395 (TT$3,633).
Sri Lanka: Still seven years away from being granted Test status, the nation still referred to then by much of the English media as ‘Ceylon’ possessed some quality but not nearly enough international experience to seriously challenge any of the main contenders at the 1975 World Cup.
Batsman Anura Tennekoon was their captain for both the 1975 and 1979 editions of the World Cup and they had the misfortune of being in the tougher of the two preliminary groups, having to cope with eventual champions West Indies, finalists Australia and dark horses Pakistan.
Former captain Michael Tissera, 36 years old then, could at least say he appeared in a World Cup before the end of his career. And future captain Duleep Mendis, 22 at the time, was at the forefront of the new wave of cricketers from that tropical island, whose performances would eventually persuade the ICC to grant them Test status in 1982.
Mendis endured a chastening experience at the 1975 World Cup but later developed as a batsman and eventual captain of Spri Lanka.
(via Wisden.)
East Africa: A squad comprising players from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, this would be East Africa’s only appearance at a World Cup as the constituent elements eventually forged out on their own in pursuit of ICC Associate Member status, funding and eventually, qualification for global tournaments.
Kenya, with the greatest exposure to the game brought there, as everywhere else, by the colonial power, were the first to break away, qualifying for the 1996 World Cup where they famously defeated the West Indies. Seven years later they made it to the semi-finals but have since fallen away.
Led by middle-order batsman Harilal Shah, one of ten players in the squad with roots on the Indian sub-continent, East Africa’s inexperience showed in their three matches.
They could have strengthened their squad with three East African-born cricketers then playing English county cricket—Basher Hassan, Dudley Owen-Thomas and John Solanky—but their selectors made a point of choosing only players living and playing in East Africa.
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Fazeer Mohammed is a journalist/broadcaster with almost 40 years’ experience across a range of media.
His interest in cricket, and particularly its history, started at home via his father’s small collection of autobiographies and magazines, offering perspectives and context which have informed his commentary and analysis on contemporary issues in the game.
