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(Part 37.) West Indies too professional.
With 14 days to go to the 50th anniversary of the West Indies victory over Australia in the 1975 World Cup final, Tony Cozier reports on the Caribbean side’s opening match of the tournament against Sri Lanka, which was carried originally in his celebratory brochure World Cup Champions ‘75:
Tennekoon called incorrectly and Sri Lanka were inserted to bat. They were dismissed for 86 and the West Indies strolled to a nine-wicket win.
The West Indies, with a ruthless efficiency which tended to confirm the bookmakers’ odds, brushed aside the threat of the 1,000 to one outsiders, Sri Lanka, within an hour and took a mere 58 overs to complete their assignment, becoming the first team to win in the tournament.
Scores:
Sri Lanka 86 all out off 37.2 overs (Somachandra de Silva 21, Michael Tissera 14, Tony Opatha 11; Bernard Julien 4-20, Keith Boyce 3-22, Andy Roberts 2-16, Vanburn Holder 1-2);
West Indies 87 for 1 off 20.4 overs (Roy Fredericks 33, Deryck Murray 30 not out, Alvin Kallicharran 19 not out; Somachandra de Silva 1-33).
Result: West Indies won by nine wickets.
Toss: West Indies.
The plain truth was that the experienced professionalism of the West Indies proved too much for the part-time amateurism of Sri Lanka. They may be far tougher in conditions which they know so well in Colombo but they still have a lot to learn about playing in England—even on a bright, warm and sunny day as this one was.
It was Julien who first of all exposed their weaknesses against the moving ball and it was a revealing statistic that seven of the Sri Lankans fell to edged catches either at the wicket or in the slips.
It was, in every respect, a rather miserable day for the Sri Lankans who were hoping to convince the International Cricket Conference (ICC) later in the summer that they are worthy of Test match status.
After 20 minutes play, with the scoreboard reading five for two, about a dozen placard-carrying demonstrators, protesting apparently against “Sinhalese racism”, raced onto the field and plonked themselves down on the pitch. They were removed by the police but were probably satisfied that they had made their point.
Even the pretty Sri Lankan girls in their bright orange saris promoting Ceylonese tea around the ground looked somewhat glummer at the early end of it all.
There was a similar disruption four days earlier on the opening day of the tournament when Sri Lanka faced the West Indies in Manchester.
Their protest intended to highlight claims of racism and discrimination against the minority Tamils by the majority Sinhalese in Sri Lanka.
Photo: Getty Images.
For the West Indies, of course, the whole operation could hardly have gone smoother. The team’s selection—excluding Gordon Greenidge and Maurice Foster for two bowlers—proved surprising but it was never tested.
It was clear, however, that the thoughts of Clive Lloyd and his co-selectors would be different in subsequent matches.
Julien, whose position had been in doubt because of a slight groin strain, bowled beautifully and was obviously and deservedly the Man of the Match. No batsman ever seemed sure which way he would be moving the ball and he mixed the incoming and the outgoing ball intelligently.
Ranjit Fernando, Anura Tennekoon, Michael Tissera and Mevan Pieris all followed deliveries running away from them and Murray, Kallicharran and Lloyd were there to pocket the catches.
Roberts, without being at his most menacing, gave nothing away and Boyce bowled well and straight.
It was typical of the man that Boyce’s very first ball should have tested the special competition ruling about wides in relation to bouncers. It jumped high over Bandula Warnapura’s head and umpire Lloyd Budd duly made his signal.
Apparently satisfied that the umpires would, indeed, implement the ruling, Boyce thereafter bothered with no more and he finished with three wickets, two to catches by Murray and one yorked.
At lunch Sri Lanka found themselves 58 for nine and it was afterwards that they demonstrated their best batting of the day as Somachandra de Silva and Lalith Kaluperuna observed the tenet of playing straight.
Lance Gibbs had four overs and didn’t come out of them very well, conceding 17 runs and being too consistently short. It proved to be his last game as, short of practice and at his own suggestion, he was omitted for the tougher assignments.
Photo: PA Photos.
In the end, it was only a rush of blood to an inexperienced head which caused de Silva to drive Holder, off a short run, to mid-off’s lap.
Rohan Kanhai, down to open, could not because of a slight hand injury received while dropping de Silva off Gibbs in the latter stages of the Sri Lankan innings. So Fredericks and Murray set about the formality of getting the runs.
Fredericks was the only loss on the way, caught at point off de Silva, a most impressive leg-spinner who needs more scope than the 60 overs variety of the game.
It was a heartening victory, even though everyone knew that the real challenges were yet to come.
Next: What was Sunil Gavaskar up to?
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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.
