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(Part 30.) A Bird’s eye view.
Let’s just try to imagine the setting 50 years ago today, a week before the opening round of group matches at the 1975 Cricket World Cup.
A real sense of anticipation no doubt with all eight teams competing for the first time for the first official men’s international cricket championship of any kind.
Obviously, they would be in a training camp somewhere close to the venue of their opening match with net sessions, general practice and team talks, with analysis of the opposition to get them ready for the first ball the next Saturday.
Well, that may have been so for most of the other teams, but not for the West Indies.
And, with 21 days to go to the golden anniversary of that memorable 1975 World Cup final at Lord’s, we appreciate how uncannily similar it was to the present time—with players juggling their multi-million dollar franchise commitments alongside the demands of representing the Caribbean team in a regional tournament.
Photo: Lancashire Cricket.
Now, of course, there is a whole debate about loyalty and sense of pride in playing for the West Indies.
Then though, there wasn’t even a second thought about almost the entire Clive Lloyd-led squad, minus the only three players who flew in from the Caribbean, representing their English counties mere days before they were to assemble in Manchester for the encounter with underdogs Sri Lanka on the opening day of the World Cup at Old Trafford on 7 June.
In fact on this day, 50 years ago, Lloyd was blazing his way to an unbeaten 167 as his Lancashire side amassed 477 for 5 batting first against Derbyshire at Buxton.
Those were the days when county matches starting on the Saturday had to pause on the Sunday for a John Player League fixture somewhere else before everyone returned to the venue on the Monday and Tuesday for the conclusion of the scheduled three-day first-class encounter.
Copyright: Getty Images.
We’ll get back to that match at Buxton on Monday, God willing, to reflect on an historic weather phenomenon.
It will actually be celebrated tomorrow, Sunday, with a day of events at the Park Road ground, featuring interviews with players who were there at the time including former England players Bob Taylor and Geoff Miller of hosts Derbyshire and former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Farokh Engineer and former England batsman Frank Hayes of Lancashire.
Also scheduled to be there tomorrow is 92-year-old former international umpire Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird, who officiated in that match and was one of the most popular and beloved officials in the game.
Photo: Cricmash.
In an interview on the Fox Television documentary The 1975 World Cup Story, Bird is unequivocal in his endorsement of that inaugural men’s global tournament as the springboard towards global acceptance for the relatively new format.
“That’s when one-day cricket really, really took off because everyone remembers the 1975 World Cup final,” he said, reflecting on the match he adjudicated on the field alongside fellow Englishman Tom Spencer. “It was a great honour for me. It’s the best match I’ve ever stood in, no doubt about that.
“Of all the Test matches, all the One-Day Internationals, that 1975 World Cup final was the best cricket match that I’ve stood in because it had everything.”
Photo: PA Photos.
That everything included sheer pandemonium, as thousands of celebratory West Indies fans ran onto the field from all corners of the Lord’s ground, after Jeff Thomson was caught at extra-cover by Roy Fredericks off a Vanburn Holder no-ball.
At the time, Australia’s last-wicket pair of Thomson and Dennis Lillee were threatening to do what the West Indies did to Pakistan at the group stage, in taking their team to an improbable victory.
“Now, the crowd didn’t hear ‘no-ball’ called, you see, and Thomson and Lillee were running in between thousands and thousands of spectators,” Bird recalls in the documentary.
Photo: PA Photos/ Getty Images.
He went on to narrate the conversation between Australia’s last pair, amid the mayhem of the ball being momentarily lost in the outfield among the spectators—after Fredericks’ throw to the non-striker’s end to try to run out Lillee missed the stumps and went out towards the midwicket boundary.
“[…] ‘Keep going Thommo, keep going!’ (Lillee said). ‘How many is that Dennis? It’s 14 we’ve run, that’s 14 we’ve run!’,” was what Bird remembers them saying to each other.
That moment of madness, with the fans on the edge of the square while the two batsmen were deciding how many to run, became an even more memorable experience for the famous umpire.
Photo: Sportstar (India).
“Some years after I was travelling in London, on a London bus, and this big West Indies bus conductor came round (saying) ‘Fares please, fares please.’ I looked at him.
“He had this white cap on and I said to myself ‘That looks like one of mine!’ So I asked: ‘Excuse me sir, where did you get the white cap?’
“He said ‘Haven’t you heard of Mr Dickie Bird? This is one of his white caps. I pinched it off his head in the 1975 World Cup final… and I am so proud of this white cap!’”
(via ESPN.)
For the record, umpires Spencer (who made the no-ball call) and Bird determined that three runs would be awarded, getting Australia closer to the 292 needed for victory, although they eventually fell short a few minutes later when wicketkeeper Deryck Murray ran out Thomson in the penultimate over of the match.
All of that detail—and indeed the details of all the West Indies matches as reported by legendary journalist/commentator Tony Cozier in the souvenir brochure World Cup Champions ‘75—are still to come, as the countdown to one of the greatest moments in Caribbean cricket history continues.
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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.
