It was possibly the most unimaginable group photograph in cricket some two years before its time — the cream of the world’s cricketers standing with the Queen of England on the steps of Buckingham Palace.

This was of course the preamble to the greatest show in cricket, given the consecrated status of the Ashes. Though there had been six Test-playing nations since 1952 it was not until 1975 (two years after the women had staged their cricket world cup) that these six got together with associate member Sri Lanka.

Politics kept South Africa out and to bring in the continent a potpourri of club cricketers from East Africa were invited to help launch cricket’s first ever world cup. It was 60-overs a side, 12 overs per bowler keeping in line with England’s premier Gillette Cup format.

There were no fielding restrictions in those days.

The first cricket World Cup was considered a test case — subsequent editions depended on its success and value. Those were the days when ICC was ruled by the grey-suited, grey-haired conservative men at Lord’s, where England still travelled abroad wearing MCC colours. And the Australian administrators knew a certain Mr Kerry Packer to have something to do with the television industry.

It was a short tournament by today’s standards, lasting a fortnight, with all group matches (with three days gap) and the two semi-finals being played on the same day. The final was played on the longest day, June 21, and it proved to be that in terms of the cricket itself with almost 120 overs bowled in the day and victory coming at 8.42pm.

With 10 cricket World Cups played and 10 weeks to go before the 11th edition, we bring you blasts from the past; starting with the story of the first ever World Cup!

West Indies, after beating New Zealand in the semi-finals, won the World Cup in typical Calypso style, flamboyant and grinning but ruthless in execution. Australia, whose top cricketers did not play the English county cricket and had techniques normally unsuited to English conditions, defeated hosts England (considered masters of the format) in the semi-finals to play West Indies in the final. 

Pakistan missed out despite being billed as one of the favourites with almost the entire team either playing in county cricket for several years or having toured half a summer the year before.

Intikhab Alam had been the captain till then and had led Pakistan on an undefeated tour of England despite some 30 matches overall. But Inti was termed unsuitable for limited overs cricket by the selectors as leg spinners were then considered an unaffordable luxury, liable to be expensive.

Inti was a hard-hitting lower order batsman but was axed despite that. It was dramatic irony then, that in a warm-up game against Surrey he strutted to a quick half century against the Pakistani bowling attack!   

Pakistan was instead led by Asif Iqbal, a cavalier batsman and swing bowler who was considered something of a specialist for one-day cricket.

Asif played his cricket in mysterious ways and one could never figure out whether he was a team player or his own man. Bizarrely he could pass as both.

True to character, he pulled a truly fast one by not facing West Indies’s bowling. The night before the second game against West Indies he admitted himself for a jaw operation!

This was extraordinary because he had made a fine 50 against Australia in the opening match, a game Pakistan was evenly poised to win before caving in to Dennis Lillee.

Majid therefore captained the side in the next game against West Indies, a virtual quarter-final of Group ‘B’. This game at Edgbaston proved to be the thriller of the tournament, with Pakistan all set to win.

Even debutant Javed Miandad, only 19 then, got runs against the pacy West Indians, taking a wicket as well. But with 101 runs to get and two wickets in hand, then 64 with last wicket pair, Pakistan were to go out in the last over despite a skillful spell of swing bowling by Sarfraz (4-44).

While Pakistan faced West Indies, there was a different tension in another part of the country. Australia, boasting of Lillee and Thomson, of murderous pace and bounce (there was no limit then to short deliveries and bouncers) and playing against Sri Lanka, started realising at one stage that the Sri Lankan batsman were actually going to run them down to the chase despite a tall total of 328.

There was soon blood on the pitch and three Sri Lankans had to be helped off the field. There was no remorse from the Aussies, true to their character and the way they played their cricket, pulling no punches no matter how pliable the opposition.

It was nothing to laugh at but Duleep Mendis, one of those carted to hospital in an ambulance, remembers encountering a policeman there who, unaware of the cause of the injury, asked: “Sir, do you want to press charges against this man.”

Such was the hostility with which they had been bounced.

On another count, it was a tragedy of epic proportions for the Indian fans who had gathered to see their side’s opening game against England. Facing a daunting 334, Sunil Gavaskar crafted a strategy that was beyond comprehension.

He played out the 60 overs and returned unbeaten with a hefty 36! Disconsolate Indian fans even ran on to the field pleading with him to die fighting.

But Sunil would have none of it. The Indian manager enlightened all that Gavaskar had considered the score unattainable and therefore chose to practice! MCC had to reassure the sponsors it would never happen again.

As someone said: “It was a perverse moment of self-inflicted shame.”

Yet it was a fascinating event the more it neared its closure.

There were some memorable exhibits of pure, classy cricket. In a showdown game between West Indies and Australia, the top two sides of the time, the 5’4” Alvin Kallicharan demolished the fastest Aussies pair, assaulting Lillee for 35 in 10 successive balls. Majid Khan waltzed to three successive 50s, and Clive Lloyd thundered to 102 off 85 balls in a match-winning knock in the final, where Viv Richards completed three of the five run outs in the Australian innings.  

Gary Gilmour, a beefy left-armer bowling in England for the first time, astounded England with 6-14 bowling them out for 93 on a seaming Headingley pitch, then finishing the game top scorer after coming in at 39-6 himself. He was to take a fiver in the final but to no avail.

Amazingly for a tournament in England, not a single ball was lost to bad weather. The gods had smiled, perhaps only to tell the ICC it was truly daft to have not held such a congregation of the greatest preachers of cricket till now. Cricket’s long-awaited innovation had in fact been safely delivered.

Prudential World Cup — 1975

• Administrator — International Cricket Council • Cricket format — One Day International • Tournament formats — Round robin and Knockout • Host — England • Champions — West Indies (1st title) • Participants — 8 • Matches played — 15 • Attendance — 158,000 (10,533 per match) • Most runs — Glenn Turner (333) • Most wickets — Gary Gilmour (11)

Match summaries

• 1st match: England v India at Lord’s — Jun 7, 1975, England won by 202 runs (Eng 334/4; Ind 132/3) • 2nd match: East Africa v New Zealand at Birmingham — Jun 7, 1975, New Zealand won by 181 runs (NZ 309/5; EA 128/8) • 3rd match: Australia v Pakistan at Leeds — Jun 7, 1975, Australia won by 73 runs (Aus 278/7; Pak 205) • 4th match: Sri Lanka v West Indies at Manchester — Jun 7, 1975, West Indies won by 9 wickets (with 39.2 overs remaining) (SL 86; WI 87/1) • 5th match: England v New Zealand at Nottingham — Jun 11, 1975, England won by 80 runs (England 266/6; NZ 186) • 6th match: East Africa v India at Leeds — Jun 11, 1975, India won by 10 wickets (with 30.1 overs remaining) (EA 120; India 123/0) • 7th match: Australia v Sri Lanka at The Oval — Jun 11, 1975, Australia won by 52 runs (Aus 328/5; SL 276/4) • 8th match: Pakistan v West Indies at Birmingham — Jun 11, 1975, West Indies won by 1 wicket (with 2 balls remaining) (Pak 266/7; WI 267/9) • 9th match: England v East Africa at Birmingham — Jun 14, 1975, England won by 196 runs (Eng 290/5; EA 94) • 10th match: India v New Zealand at Manchester — Jun 14, 1975, New Zealand won by 4 wickets (with 1.1 overs remaining) (Ind 230; NZ 233/6) • 11th match: Australia v West Indies at The Oval — Jun 14, 1975, West Indies won by 7 wickets (with 84 balls remaining) (Aus 192; WI 195/3) • 12th match: Pakistan v Sri Lanka at Nottingham — Jun 14, 1975, Pakistan won by 192 runs (Pak 330/6; SL 138) • 1st semi-final: England v Australia at Leeds — Jun 18, 1975, Australia won by 4 wickets (with 31.2 overs remaining) (Eng 93; Aus 94/6) • 2nd semi-final: New Zealand v West Indies at The Oval — Jun 18, 1975, West Indies won by 5 wickets (with 19.5 overs remaining) (NZ 158; WI 159/5) • Final: Australia v West Indies at Lord’s — Jun 21, 1975, West Indies won by 17 runs (WI 291/8; Aus 274)

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, December 7th, 2014