Cricket World cup : Flashback of 1st 4 editions 1975 to 1987

 

As the countdown for the 2023 World cup has started we look back down memory lane and recall briefly the past history of this mega event held once every four years .

1975

The inaugural world cup cricket  tournament in 1975 was sponsored by the Prudential Assurance Company and had eight participating nations: the six Test-playing teams of the time – Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, West Indies and two major associate nations Sri Lanka and East Africa.  The teams were divided into two groups of four, with each team playing each other in its group once;  The top two from each group qualified for the semi-finals, with the winners of these matches playing in the final.  Each match consisted of 60 overs per team and was played with traditional white clothing and red balls;  All matches  were played and finished in daylight.

 England and New Zealand finished as the top two teams in Group A, while West Indies topped the Group B table ahead of Australia as four teams qualified for the semi-finals.  Australia defeated England courtesy a brilliant bowling performance from Gary Gilmour who took 6 wickets in a low scoring thriller  and West Indies defeated New Zealand in the other  semi-finals, West Indies, who came into the tournament as favourites, defeated Australia by 17 runs in the final at Lord's to become the first World Cup winner. In the Final West Indies amassed 291/8 with Clive Lloyd scoring an explosive 86 ball 102 . Australia chased bravely with Ian Chappell scoring 62  but at the end fell short by 17 runs due to a combination of run outs and good bowling .

New Zealand batsman, Glenn Turner was the leading run-scorer for the tournament, with 333 runs, while Australian bowler, Gary Gilmour, was the top wicket-taker with 11 wickets.

1979

 The 1979 tournament was once again sponsored by the Prudential Assurance Company and eight teams participated in the tournament with the only change being Canada who qualified for the tournament along with Sri Lanka in the qualifiers.  The final was once again retained at Lords. England joined first-time semi-finalists Pakistan as qualifiers from Group A, while West Indies finished ahead of New Zealand in Group B.  West Indies retained their four-year-old title by winning the final at Lord's by 92 runs over England, after West Indies and England won the semi-finals over Pakistan and New Zealand respectively.  England v New Zealand was a close contest with England scoring 221 helped by Gooch 71 , Brearley 53 & Randall 42 . John Wright 69 started well for the Kiwis but they lost wickets later & fell short by 9 runs . Meanwhile West Indies helped by Greenidge 73 , Haynes 65 & Richards 42 amassed 293 . However Mazid Khan 81 & Zaheer Abbas 93 had a glorious 166 run stand to challenge the West Indies but after Abbas' dismissal Pakistan collapsed to get all out for 250 to lose by 43 runs . In the final an imperious 138 not out by Vivian Richards and an explosive 86 by Collis King took West Indies to 286 after initial struggle . In reply England openers scored slowly and the middle order  could not get any momentum as the unplayable  Joel Garner destroyed them with 5 wickets for West Indies to win easily by 92 runs to lift their 2nd World cup under Clive Lloyd 

West Indies batsman Gordon Greenidge finished the tournament as the leading run-scorer with 253 runs in four matches and English player Mike Hendrick finished as the leading wicket-taker with ten wickets.

1983

The 1983 Cricket World Cup (officially the Prudential Cup '83) was the third edition of the Cricket World Cup tournament.  It was held in England and Wales from 9 to 25 June 1983 and was won by India.  Eight countries participated in the event.  The 1983 World Cup was full of dramatic cricket during the tournament. Teams like India and Zimbabwe who were not playing well during that time registered wins over West Indies and Australia respectively in the group stages .  England, Pakistan, India and tournament favorites West Indies qualified for the semi-finals.  The preliminary matches were played in two groups of four teams each, and each country played the others in its group twice.  The top two teams in each group qualified for the semi-finals.

 The matches consisted of 60 overs per innings and were played with traditional white clothing and red balls.  They were all played during the day.

 The format of the 1983 World Cup was 2 groups of four teams, each team playing each other twice.  The top two teams from each group then advance to the semi-finals with the winners advancing to the final.  Each game was of 60 overs with all day matches. After beating West Indies & Zimbabwe in their group , India lost to Australia and return match to West Indies and were tottering at 17/5 vs Zimbabwe in the return match before Kapil Dev played that iconic knock of 175 not out to revive India 's semis hopes which they duly qualified by outclassing Australia in the last group game . West Indies, England and Pakistan were the other 3 semi finalists. 

In the first semi-final at Old Trafford on 22 June, England won the toss and elected to bat.  The English batsmen mistimed many of the balls and used the edge of the bat frequently, as restrictive Indian bowling led England to score 213 (all out, 60 overs).   In reply, Yashpal Sharma (61 from 115 balls, 3 fours, 2 sixes) and Sandeep Patil (51 from 32 balls, 8 fours) scored half-centuries & Mohinder Amarnath 46 as India achieved their target in 54.4 overs, and in a classic  Won by 6 wickets.  Mohinder Amarnath (46 runs from 92 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) picked up the Man of the Match award for his all-round performance, adding 46 runs to his maiden bowling success (2/27 in 12 overs).

 The second semi-final, between Pakistan and West Indies, was held at The Oval on the same day.  West Indies won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat, which they restricted to just 184 (8 wickets, 60 overs) with   Mohsin Khan scoring 70  against excellent West Indies bowling.  Malcolm Marshall (3/28) and Andy Roberts (2/25) starred with the ball.  The West Indies innings was based on a brilliant innings by Viv Richards (80 runs off 96 balls, 11 fours, 1 six), who took the Man of the Match award, and an unbeaten half-century (50 runs) by Larry Gomes. West indies won by 8 wickets 

In the final, India lost the toss and were asked to bat first against West Indies.  Only Krishnamachari Srikkanth (38 from 57 balls) and Mohinder Amarnath (26 from 80 balls) put up any significant resistance as Roberts, Marshall, Joel Garner and Michael Holding were too good for India as India were 183 allout . However   the Indian bowling took full advantage of the weather and pitch conditions to induce a sensational West Indies collapse at 76/6 and finally  bowl out West Indies for 140 runs in 52 overs, winning by 43 runs and completing one of the greatest upsets in cricket history.  This still remains the lowest to be successfully defended in a World Cup final.  Amarnath and Madan Lal took three wickets each as a beaming captain Kapil Dev lifted the cup on the Lords balcony.    Viv Richards was the West Indies' top scorer with 33 runs from 28 balls as he looked dangerous but his dismissal opened the floodgates for India .  Amarnath was the most economical bowler, conceding only 12 runs from his seven overs, while taking 3 wickets, and was once again awarded the Man of the Match award for his all-round performance. Roger Binny was the highest wicket taker in the 1983 event with 18 wickets while David Gower with 384 runs was the top scorer .

1987

After 3 successive World cups were held in England , finally the World cup moved outside Europe and the 4th edition in 1987 was jointly hosted by India and Pakistan . The clothing remained in traditional whites but the overs were reduced from 60 to 50 overs due to lesser hours of daylight in the subcontinent during the onset of winter . All world cup since 1987 was played with 50 overs stipulation which became the ODI rule .  The tournament format was same with 8 teams divided in 2 groups playing twice against each team . The World cup which was called the Reliance Cup turned out to be a great success with lots of close games like Australia beating India by 1 run in a high scoring game at Chennai , Pakistan beating West Indies by 1 wicket , Australia beating New Zealand by 3 runs , Zimbabwe losing to New Zealand  narrowly.  This World cup also saw the first ever hattrick which came from Chetan Sharma of India against New Zealand in the group stages and all his dismissals were bowled in a single over  . 

Australia, England , Pakistan and India reached the semis and the 2 times champion  West Indies faced exit from the group stages .

Pakistan faced Australia at Lahore in the first semi final . Boon's 65 and many extras helped Australia to pile on 267/6  batting first . Pakistan lost wickets at start which forced Miandad (70) & Imran (58) to rescue the innings but they could not force the pace & Craig McDermott bowled fast and straight to demolish the Pakistan middle & lower order to help Australia win by 18 runs and reach their 2nd final .  Meanwhile favourites  India faced England at Mumbai and Graham Gooch (115) with Mike Gatting (56) swept the Indian spinners on their way to glory as England scored 254 . India were chasing well with Azharuddin (64) and Kapil Dev but Kapil's (30) ill advised hoick proved fatal for India as they lost lower order wickets under pressure to lose the semis by 35 runs which set up the Australia v England final at Kolkata . 

The final was exciting one with Australia helped by Boon (75) & Valetta (45) reaching 253 . England worked towards the target with Athey 58, Gatting 41 and Lamb 45 taking England close but Australia kept getting wickets and cutting off the boundaries to finally find England 7 runs short and win their first world cup title under Allan Border's captaincy.

Graham Gooch (471 runs ) and Craig McDermott (18 wickets )were the highest run getter and wicket taker respectively in the 1987 World cup