Hurricane King

In this week’s edition of In Search of West Indies Cricket Roger Seymour looks at the 1979 Prudential World Cup Final between the West Indies and England.

When the 1979 Prudential World Cup commenced on 9th June, the cricketing world was still adjusting to the impact of two seasons of World Series Cricket (WSC) on the game, and the surprise announcement on 30th May, of a truce between the Australia Cricket Board (ACB) and Kerry Packer’s WSC organisation. The media magnate’s Channel Nine Television Network had not only won the exclusive rights to telecast Australian cricket (Packer’s original target), but had also been granted a ten-year contract to promote and market the game.

As the 1980 edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack duly noted, “The feeling in many quarters was that when the Australian Board first found Packer at their throats, the rest of the cricket world supported them to the hilt; even to the extent of highly expensive court cases which cricket could ill afford. Now, when it suited Australia, they had brushed their friends aside to meet their own ends.” For the ‘many quarters’, one should read the ICC and the then England Test and County Cricket Board which had provided much financial and moral support to the ACB.

In hindsight, the West Indian team had been the main beneficiary – at least in the short term – of the Packer revolution. During the two WSC seasons (1977/8 & 1978/9) of professional cricket in Australia, the team had developed a winning mentality mindset, and under the guidance of their trainer, Australian Dennis Waite, supreme fitness had become the standard requisite. As the defending champions with a new persona, the West Indies, with Australia opting not to select their WSC players, were odds on favourites to repeat.

The West Indies team included six players from the 1975 Final (In Search of West Indies Cricket – West Indian Summer Solstice, 3rd July, 2016), Captain Clive Lloyd, vice captain/wicket-keeper Deryck Murray, Alvin Kallicharran, Andy Roberts, Viv Richards, and Gordon Greenidge. The rest of the 14-member squad were Collis King, Michael Holding, Colin Croft, Joel Garner, Desmond Haynes, Larry Gomes, Faoud Bacchus and Malcolm Marshall. The latter trio, and Kallicharran were the only non-former WSC players. The out-of-form Wayne Daniel, who had lost his place to Marshall, it could have been argued, was probably the only player missing from a full strength West Indies team.

The second World Cup tournament followed the same simple format of the first. Eight teams, two groups of four, three round-robin matches in each group, with the top two qualifying for the semi-finals, where the group winners faced the runners-up from the other group. It was a 60-over tournament and there were two reserve days for each match, in the advent of weather interference. The six Test playing nations: England, Australia, West Indies, New Zealand, India and Pakistan were joined by ICC Associates, Sri Lanka, who had also participated in the previous tournament, and Canada. In the first competition, the favoured West Indies had been drawn with Australia and Pakistan, two of the four top rated teams (England being the other), and Sri Lanka. This time around, Dame Fortune had smiled on the West Indies, who were placed with New Zealand, India and Sri Lanka.

Scores

9th June

Group A, Lord’s: Australia 159 for 9 (60 overs); England 160 for 4 (47.1 overs), G. Gooch, 53. England (4 points) won by 6 wickets. Headingley: Canada 139 for 9 (60 overs); Pakistan 140 for 2 (40.1 overs), Sadiq Mohammed , 57*. Pakistan (4 points) won by 8 wickets.

Group B, Edgbaston: India, 190 (53.1 overs), G. Vishwanath, 75, M. Holding, 4 for 35. West Indies, 194 for one (51.3 overs), G. Greenidge, 106*. West Indies (4 points) won by 9 wickets.

Trent Bridge: Sri Lanka, 189, (56.5 overs), A. Tennekoon, 59. New Zealand, 190 for one (47.4 overs), G. Turner, 83*. New Zealand (4 points) won by 9 wickets.

13Th - 15th June

Group A, Old Trafford (14th): Canada, 45 (40.3 overs), C. Old 4 for 8, R. Willis, 4 for 11. England, 46 for 2 (13.5 overs). England (4 points) won by 8 wickets. Trent Bridge (13th & 14th): Pakistan 286 for 7 (60 overs), M. Khan, 61, A. Iqbal, 61. Australia, 197 (57.1 overs), A. Hilditch, 72. Pakistan (4 points) won by 89 runs.

Group B, Headingley (13th): India, 182 (55.5 overs), S. Gavaskar, 55. New Zealand, 183 for 2 (57 overs), B. Edgar, 84*. New Zealand (4 points ) won by 8 wickets. The Oval: (13th – 15th), West Indies versus Sri Lanka. Rain. Abandoned without a ball bowled. 2 points each.

16th June:

Group A, Headingley: England, 165 (60 overs), Pakistan 151 (56 overs), A. Iqbal, 51. M. Hendrick, 4 for 15. England (4 points) won by 14 runs. Edgbaston: Canada, 105, (33.2 overs), A. Hurst, 5 for 21. Australia, 106 for 3 (26 overs). Australia (4 points ) won by 7 wickets.

Group B. Trent Bridge: West Indies, 244 for 7 (60 overs), C. Lloyd, 73*, C. Greenidge, 65. New Zealand, 212 for 9 (60 overs). West Indies (4 points) won by 32 runs. Old Trafford, (16th & 18th): Sri Lanka, 238 for 5 (60 overs), S. Wettimuny, 67, D. Mendis, 64, R. Dias, 50. India, 191 (54.1 overs). Sri Lanka (4 points) won by 47 runs.

20th June

Semi-finals, Old Trafford: England, 221 for 8 (60 overs), G. Gooch, 71, M. Brearley, 53. New Zealand, 212 for 9 (60 overs), J. Wright, 69. England won by 9 runs.

At the Kennington Oval, in London, the large band of West Indian supporters were celebrating a West Indies victory in brilliant sunshine in the other semi-final over Pakistan. The match did not go all the way down to the wire like their previous Prudential World Cup encounter in the first round of the 1975 tournament (In Search of West Indies Cricket, ‘Back from the Brink’, SN, 26th March, 2023), but there was an anxious period when Pakistan appeared to be in the driver’s seat.

Inexplicably invited to bat by Pakistan Captain, Asif Iqbal, the West Indies were off to a flying start as the opening pair of Greenidge and Haynes added 132 for the first wicket, before the former provided a chance to the wicket-keeper Wasim Bari, off of Asif Iqbal, who had come into the attack as the sixth bowler. The partnership lasted for 122 minutes. Greenidge set the pace with an innings of 73, inclusive of five boundaries and one six. The in-form West Indies batting lineup then applied further pressure as Richards and Lloyd (batting fourth) wielded their heavy bats to add to Pakistan’s despair. Although Iqbal captured the first four wickets (also, Haynes 65, Richards, 42, & Lloyd, 42), the inability of his main strikers to contain the West Indians must have gnawed a bit. As the innings drew to a close, a rapid 49run, fifth wicket partnership between King (34) and Kallicharran (11), propelled the West Indies total to 293 for six from their 60 overs. The scoring rate of 4.88 per over, at that time, was considered to be high. Pakistan’s best bowler was part time off-spinner and opening batsman Majid Khan, whose 12 overs cost 26 runs. By contrast, new ball bowler Safraz Nawaz’s 12 overs yielded