The history of cricket’s showpiece

Australia, fresh from a 5-0 Ashes series win over England, systematically destroyed all opposition throughout the Caribbean, finishing with victory over Sri Lanka in a rain-shortened final at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados. Adam Gilchrist bettered Ponting's record tally in a final with a typically audacious 149. Photo: Themba Hadebe

Australia, fresh from a 5-0 Ashes series win over England, systematically destroyed all opposition throughout the Caribbean, finishing with victory over Sri Lanka in a rain-shortened final at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados. Adam Gilchrist bettered Ponting's record tally in a final with a typically audacious 149. Photo: Themba Hadebe

Published Feb 5, 2015

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Cape Town - Highlights of the Cricket World Cup finals between 1975-2011 ahead of the 2015 edition which starts on February 14:

1975 in England

Fine weather blessed the first global one-day tournament culminating in an unforgettable final between West Indies and Australia at Lord’s.

Striking the ball with relaxed brutality, West Indies’ captain Clive Lloyd tamed an attack headed by the pace and fury of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson to score 102 from 85 balls.

He was ably assisted by the 39-year-old Rohan Kanhai, a late replacement for his injured contemporary Garfield Sobers.

Kanhai contributed 55 to West Indies’ 291 for eight from their 60 overs.

Australia captain Ian Chappell led a spirited reply with 62 before he fell victim to one of three run-outs effected by the electric reflexes of Viv Richards.

Lillee and Thomson added 41 for the final wicket before Australia were finally dismissed for 274 at twilight on the longest day of the year.

1979 in England

Peace was brokered with Australian entre- preneur Kerry Packer, whose rebel World Series had split world cricket, shortly before the second World Cup.

Australia still chose not to select any of the players who had signed for Packer but West Indies did and a team who were to rule world cricket throughout the next decade demolished England in the final.

Richards, then the world’s number one batsman, stroked an imperious 138 and Collis King struck a whirlwind 86.

Although England captain Mike Brearley and Geoff Boycott put on 129 for the first wicket, they took up 38 of the 60 overs.

After their dismissals, the giant Joel Garner ran through the middle-order with a series of unplayable yorkers to take five wickets in 11 balls and give his team victory by 92 runs.

1983 in England

Richards seemed intent on winning the final against underdogs India on his own after West Indies had been set a modest 184 to win. He struck seven boundaries in his 33 from 28 balls before top-edging a hook which India captain Kapil Dev, running away from the pitch towards the boundary at mid-wicket, coolly collected.

West Indies imploded thereafter, with India recording a famous 43-run victory which was to have profound implications at home where one-day cricket quickly superseded the Test game as the most popular form of the sport.

1987 in India and Pakistan

England appeared to be cruising to victory in the final against Australia at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens when Mike Gatting tried a reverse sweep off opposing captain Allan Border’s first delivery and lobbed a simple catch.

A well-drilled and disciplined Australia side went on to win by seven runs with the core of the team who later thrashed England in the 1989 Ashes series and eventually succeeded the West Indies as unofficial world Test champions.

Because of the shorter daylight hours on the sub-continent all matches were played over 50 overs, now the standard length, instead of 60.

1992 in Australia and New Zealand

Famously urged by their captain Imran Khan to “fight like cornered tigers,” Pakistan rebounded from imminent elimination in the opening round to defeat England in the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Imran, the greatest player to emerge from Pakistan, scored 72 batting at number three in his final match for his country. He also took the final wicket after his protege Wasim Akram had blown away Ian Botham, Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis.

Coloured clothing, floodlights and a white ball, all pioneered in World Series cricket, were finally introduced into the tournament.

1996 in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, with the explosive Sanath Jayasuriya at the top of the order and Muttiah Muralitharan bewitching opposing batsmen with his prodigious powers of spin, proved worthy champions.

The Sri Lankans had demonstrated before the tournament that they could chase down totals previously thought beyond reach and they exploited the fielding restrictions at the start of the innings by attacking from the first ball.

Aravinda da Silva, their most accomplished batsman, scored an assured unbeaten century in the seven-wicket win over Australia in the final in Lahore.

1999 in England, Wales and Scotland

Australia, the world’s best Test side, were in danger of elimination in the group stages and again in the Super Six round where 120 not out from captain Steve Waugh, dropped on 56 by Herschelle Gibbs, ensured victory over South Africa.

Then, in a semi-final between the same teams, South Africa needed only one run with four balls remaining in the final over with their best one-day batsman Lance Klusener on strike. A panicky run-out tied an epic match which put Australia through by virtue of their superior run-rate in the previous round.

Australia made no contest of the final against Pakistan, taking barely 4½ hours to overwhelm the 1992 champions.

2003 in South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe

Australia’s new one-day captain Ricky Ponting struck eight sixes in his 140 not out in the final against India as his team scaled new heights with a relentless 125-run victory.

The Australians became the first team to win three World Cups and took their unbeaten run in the tournament to 16.

England refused to play in Zimbabwe, whose two leading players Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands when they played against Kenya to protest against “the death of democracy in our beloved Zimbabwe”.

2007 in West Indies

Australia, fresh from a 5-0 Ashes series win over England, systematically destroyed all opposition throughout the Caribbean, finishing with victory over Sri Lanka in a rain-shortened final at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Adam Gilchrist bettered Ponting’s record tally in a final with a typically audacious 149.

Two other Australian giants, Matthew Hayden and Glenn McGrath, were the leading run-scorer and wicket-taker respectively.

The tournament was overshadowed by the death of popular Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer at the age of 58 in his hotel room in Jamaica after his team had unexpectedly lost to Ireland.

Police launched a murder investigation which led nowhere and a jury later returned an open verdict.

2011 in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh

Pakistan were also selected as one of four co-hosts but were stripped of their matches because of security fears following the attack on the touring Sri Lankan team in 2009.

Australia, rebuilding their team, missed the final for the first time since 1992 as India and Sri Lanka met in the decider, pitting Sachin Tendulkar against Muttiah Muralitharan.

Mahela Jayawardene scored an unbeaten 103 in Sri Lanka’s challenging 274-6 but India recovered from a slow start to win by six wickets with 10 balls to spare with Gautam Gambhir making 97 and India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni an unbeaten 91. India became the first country to win the cricket World Cup final on home soil.

All you need to know on venues, best bats, bowlers

Fast Facts

The first men’s cricket World Cup was held in England in 1975, four years after the first recognised one-day international had been played in 1971, on the fifth day of a washed-out Test between Australia and England in Melbourne.

* West Indies won the first two tournaments, beating Australia in 1975 and England in 1979 and then lost the 1983 final to India, but have not reached another final since.

* Allan Border’s Australia won the first of their four titles in 1987, sparking a period of dominance by the side in both one-day and Test cricket for the next 20 years.

* India won the 2011 tournament. Pakistan (1992) and Sri Lanka (1996) are the only other winners.

* In this year’s event, New Zealand and Australia will host 21 pool matches each, amongst 14 venues, seven in each country. It is the second time the two countries have co-hosted the tournament, having previously done so in 1992.

* Afghanistan will make their World Cup debut, having played three World Twenty20 tournaments.

* There are two groups of seven teams playing a round-robin format, with the top four in each pool making the quarter-finals, which will be straight knockouts.

* New Zealand will host one quarter-final in Wellington and one semi-final in Auckland.

* The Black Caps can possibly reach the final in Melbourne without having played any of their games in Australia. The two co-hosts are in the same pool and play that match on February 28 in Auckland.

* The final will be at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, only the second venue after Lord’s in London, to host more than one final.

Records

* India’s Sachin Tendulkar is the leading run-scorer with 2 278 runs in 45 matches and has scored the most centuries (six). He also holds the record for most runs in one tournament, 673 from 11 matches in 2003.

* Australia’s Glenn McGrath has the most wickets - 71 in 39 matches. McGrath also has the best bowling figures of 7/15 against Namibia in 2003.

* South Africa’s Gary Kirsten has the highest score in a World Cup match, making 188 not out against UAE in 1996.

* The highest score in a World Cup match is 413/5 by India against Bermuda in 2007, while the lowest is 36 by Canada against Sri Lanka in 2003.

* Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist has the most dismissals, 52 from 31 matches (45 catches, seven stumpings), though he could be overtaken by Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (46) in this tournament.

* Australia’s Ricky Ponting has taken 28 catches, the most by a non-wicketkeeper.

Reuters

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