World Cup archivePrudential World CupEngland
1975 Cricket World Cup
Eight teams, sixty overs, two weeks of an English June, and the West Indies as the first champions.
The first men's World Cup was an experiment that nobody was sure would work. It lasted fifteen days, fitted into an English summer, and ended with Clive Lloyd lifting the trophy at Lord's after one of the great one-day finals.
An idea borrowed from the counties
The World Cup began as a borrowed idea. English county cricket had been playing limited-overs matches since the early 1960s, when the Gillette Cup showed that a game finished in a single day could fill grounds that the three-day championship left half empty. The Sunday League followed in 1969. International cricket was slower to notice. The first one-day international was an accident: rain washed out the first three days of the Melbourne Test in January 1971, and the two sides played a 40-over match, with eight-ball overs, to give the crowd something to watch. Australia won by five wickets, and 46,000 people turned up.
Four years later the International Cricket Conference decided that the format deserved a tournament. England was the obvious host, with its grounds, its experience of one-day cricket and its long June evenings, and the Prudential Assurance Company paid for it. The event was officially the Prudential Cup, and the whole prize fund was £9,000.
Eight teams and a fortnight
Six Test nations entered: England, Australia, West Indies, New Zealand, India and Pakistan. South Africa, the seventh, had been cut off from international cricket since 1970 because of apartheid. Two more places went to Sri Lanka, not yet a Test side, and a combined East Africa team drawn from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The bookmakers made West Indies favourites at 9-4 and East Africa outsiders at 1,500-1.
The format was simple. Two groups of four played each other once, the top two in each went to the semi-finals, and every match was 60 overs a side, played in white clothing with a red ball and finished in daylight. Six grounds shared the fifteen matches: Lord's, The Oval, Edgbaston, Old Trafford, Trent Bridge and Headingley. The whole tournament ran from 7 to 21 June, and every one of the fifteen scheduled matches was completed, which in an English June was a small miracle of its own.
The first day
All four opening matches were played on Saturday 7 June, and the first day set the tone for the fortnight. At Lord's, England made 334 for four against India, with Dennis Amiss scoring 137. India's reply was one of the strangest innings in the history of the format: Sunil Gavaskar batted through all 60 overs for 36 not out from 174 balls, and India finished on 132 for three, beaten by 202 runs. Gavaskar never fully explained it, and the innings is still quoted whenever anyone wants an example of a player who had not yet understood what the new game asked of him.
At Edgbaston, New Zealand's Glenn Turner made 171 not out against East Africa, the highest score of the tournament. Turner was dismissed only twice in four innings and finished as the leading run-scorer with 333. At Headingley, Dennis Lillee took five wickets as Australia beat Pakistan, and at Old Trafford, West Indies bowled Sri Lanka out for 86, the first total below a hundred in one-day international cricket.
The group of champions
Group A was lopsided: England won all three games and New Zealand took the second place. Group B held the strongest sides, and it produced the matches that made the tournament. Against Pakistan at Edgbaston, West Indies were 203 for nine, still 64 short, when the wicketkeeper Deryck Murray was joined by Andy Roberts. The two scored the runs with two balls to spare. Had one of them been out, Pakistan would have gone through and the first World Cup would have had a different champion.
Sri Lanka gave the tournament its bravest afternoon. Set 329 by Australia at The Oval, they faced Jeff Thomson at full pace, and two of their batters, Sunil Wettimuny and Duleep Mendis, were struck and taken to hospital. Sri Lanka still made 276 for four, and won a lot of friends. West Indies then beat Australia by seven wickets at The Oval to top the group, with Alvin Kallicharran taking on Lillee's short balls and hooking him repeatedly. It was a preview of the final.
Gilmour at Headingley
The semi-final between England and Australia was played on a green Headingley pitch under heavy cloud. Gary Gilmour, a left-arm swing bowler picked because of the conditions, bowled his twelve overs unchanged and took six for 14. England were bowled out for 93. Australia then lost six wickets for 39 in reply, before Gilmour came in, made 28 not out from 28 balls, and saw them home with Doug Walters. His eleven wickets in two matches made him the tournament's leading wicket-taker.
The other semi-final, at The Oval, was far calmer. New Zealand reached 98 for one, then collapsed to 158 all out as Bernard Julien took four wickets, and Gordon Greenidge and Kallicharran put on 125 for the second wicket to take West Indies to the final with almost twenty overs to spare.
The longest day at Lord's
The final was played on 21 June, the longest day of the year, and it needed nearly all of it. The ground had been sold out for days. West Indies were sent in and slipped to 50 for three, and then Clive Lloyd came to the wicket. The captain made 102 from 85 balls, hooking Lillee and Thomson into the crowd, and put on 149 with Rohan Kanhai, who made 55 at the other end in the last big innings of a long career. Gilmour took five more wickets, but West Indies finished on 291 for eight.
Australia's chase is remembered for the way it ended rather than for any stroke. Ian Chappell made 62, but five of the Australian batters were run out, three of them by a 23-year-old Viv Richards, whose direct hit and quick returns from the covers undid Alan Turner, Greg Chappell and Ian Chappell. At 233 for nine the last pair, Lillee and Thomson, added 41 in a stand that became more alarming with every run. At one point Thomson was caught off a no-ball, the crowd ran onto the field believing the match was over, and the batters kept running while the ball was lost among them. When Thomson was finally run out, Australia were 17 runs short. The match had started at eleven in the morning and ended close to nine at night, and Lloyd was named player of the match.
What the first World Cup left behind
The tournament drew around 158,000 spectators, made a profit, and persuaded the ICC to hold another in 1979, and then every four years. It also showed what the West Indies were about to become. They had won all five of their matches with a side that could bat deep and field brilliantly, and within a few years the fast bowlers who would make them the best team in the world were arriving.
For the rest of cricket the lesson was about tempo. Gavaskar's 36 and Lloyd's 102 were played in the same tournament, and it was Lloyd's way that won. Everything about limited-overs cricket since has been a slow, steady move in the direction he pointed that evening at Lord's. Every result of the fortnight is listed below, each with its full scorecard, and the next chapter of the story is the 1979 World Cup.
Final result
West Indies 291/8 v Australia 274. West Indies won by 17 runs. Played on 21 June 1975 at Lord's, London, with Clive Lloyd captaining West Indies and Ian Chappell captaining Australia. Player of the match: Clive Lloyd.
The road to the final
| Round | Date | Match | Result | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semi-final | 18 Jun | England 93 v Australia 94/6 | Australia won by 4 wickets (with 188 balls remaining) | Headingley, Leeds |
| Semi-final | 18 Jun | New Zealand 158 v West Indies 159/5 | West Indies won by 5 wickets (with 119 balls remaining) | Kennington Oval, London |
Group tables
Group A
| Team | P | W | L | T | NR | Went on to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Semi-finals |
| New Zealand | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Semi-finals |
| India | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Group stage |
| East Africa | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Group stage |
Group B
| Team | P | W | L | T | NR | Went on to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Indies | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Champions |
| Australia | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Runners-up |
| Pakistan | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Group stage |
| Sri Lanka | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Group stage |
Group-stage matches only, ordered by wins. The official tables awarded points and separated level teams on run rate, so a team's place here can differ from its official position.
Wins by team
- Wins
- Champions
Leading run-scorers and wicket-takers
| Batter | Team | Inns | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 100s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glenn Turner | New Zealand | 4 | 333 | 171* | 166.50 | 68.5 | 2 |
| Dennis Amiss | England | 4 | 243 | 137 | 60.75 | 84.4 | 1 |
| Majid Khan | Pakistan | 3 | 209 | 84 | 69.67 | 75.5 | 0 |
| Keith Fletcher | England | 3 | 207 | 131 | 69.00 | 69.2 | 1 |
| Alan Turner | Australia | 5 | 201 | 101 | 40.20 | 77.6 | 1 |
| Alvin Kallicharran | West Indies | 5 | 197 | 78 | 49.25 | 77.3 | 0 |
| Ross Edwards | Australia | 4 | 166 | 80* | 55.33 | 79.8 | 0 |
| Clive Lloyd | West Indies | 3 | 158 | 102 | 52.67 | 104.6 | 1 |
| Zaheer Abbas | Pakistan | 3 | 136 | 97 | 45.33 | 87.7 | 0 |
| Greg Chappell | Australia | 5 | 129 | 50 | 25.80 | 75.4 | 0 |
| Bowler | Team | Overs | Wkts | Best | Avg | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gary Gilmour | Australia | 24 | 11 | 6/14 | 5.64 | 2.58 |
| Bernard Julien | West Indies | 60 | 10 | 4/20 | 17.70 | 2.95 |
| Keith Boyce | West Indies | 52 | 10 | 4/50 | 18.50 | 3.56 |
| Dayle Hadlee | New Zealand | 46 | 8 | 3/21 | 20.25 | 3.52 |
| Andy Roberts | West Indies | 62.4 | 8 | 3/39 | 20.63 | 2.63 |
| Dennis Lillee | Australia | 53 | 8 | 5/34 | 27.88 | 4.21 |
| Chris Old | England | 37 | 7 | 3/29 | 12.29 | 2.32 |
| John Snow | England | 36 | 6 | 4/11 | 10.83 | 1.81 |
| Tony Greig | England | 31 | 6 | 4/45 | 14.83 | 2.87 |
| Syed Abid Ali | India | 36 | 6 | 2/22 | 19.17 | 3.19 |
Records of the tournament
Highest scores
- 171*
- 201 balls · Glenn Turner
- 137
- 147 balls · Dennis Amiss
- 131
- 147 balls · Keith Fletcher
- 114*
- 177 balls · Glenn Turner
- 102
- 85 balls · Clive Lloyd
Best bowling
- 6/14
- 12.00 overs · Gary Gilmour
- 5/34
- 12.00 overs · Dennis Lillee
- 5/48
- 12.00 overs · Gary Gilmour
- 4/11
- 12.00 overs · John Snow
- 4/20
- 12.00 overs · Bernard Julien
Team totals
- Highest
- 334/4
- Highest
- 330/6
- Highest
- 328/5
- Lowest
- 86
- Lowest
- 93
Every group stage result
| Date | Round | Match | Result | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Jun | Group A | England 334/4 v India 132/3 | England won by 202 runs | Lord's, London |
| 7 Jun | Group A | New Zealand 309/5 v East Africa 128/8 | New Zealand won by 181 runs | Edgbaston, Birmingham |
| 7 Jun | Group B | Australia 278/7 v Pakistan 205 | Australia won by 73 runs | Headingley, Leeds |
| 7 Jun | Group B | Sri Lanka 86 v West Indies 87/1 | West Indies won by 9 wickets (with 236 balls remaining) | Old Trafford, Manchester |
| 11 Jun | Group A | England 266/6 v New Zealand 186 | England won by 80 runs | Trent Bridge, Nottingham |
| 11 Jun | Group A | East Africa 120 v India 123/0 | India won by 10 wickets (with 181 balls remaining) | Headingley, Leeds |
| 11 Jun | Group B | Australia 328/5 v Sri Lanka 276/4 | Australia won by 52 runs | Kennington Oval, London |
| 11 Jun | Group B | Pakistan 266/7 v West Indies 267/9 | West Indies won by 1 wicket (with 2 balls remaining) | Edgbaston, Birmingham |
| 14 Jun | Group A | England 290/5 v East Africa 94 | England won by 196 runs | Edgbaston, Birmingham |
| 14 Jun | Group A | India 230 v New Zealand 233/6 | New Zealand won by 4 wickets (with 7 balls remaining) | Old Trafford, Manchester |
| 14 Jun | Group B | Australia 192 v West Indies 195/3 | West Indies won by 7 wickets (with 84 balls remaining) | Kennington Oval, London |
| 14 Jun | Group B | Pakistan 330/6 v Sri Lanka 138 | Pakistan won by 192 runs | Trent Bridge, Nottingham |
Who played
Every player who appeared for each team at the tournament, with the number of matches played. Taken from the scorecards, so players who were in a squad but never played are not listed.
West Indies · Champions
England · Semi-finals
Australia · Runners-up
New Zealand · Semi-finals
India · Group stage
Pakistan · Group stage
East Africa · Group stage
Sources
- Scorecards: CricArcade ODI match archive, linked from every result
- 1975 Cricket World Cup (Wikipedia): format, groups and unplayed matches
- ESPNcricinfo: Prudential World Cup 1975, results and scorecards
- ESPNcricinfo: The Prudential World Cup, 1975 (Wisden report)
- Wikipedia: Cricket World Cup (history of the tournament)