“Let’s get it on for ICC Cricket World Cup 2015!”

Feb 08, 2015 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft
I am as pumped that International Cricket Council’s premier, blue-ribbon event, World Cup 2015 – 50-overs version – is about to begin as if I were myself playing too!
Four tumultuous years have passed since India won in 2011, with many upheavals, suspicions, question marks and other situations besmirching our beloved game.
But, in the unforgettable words of world-renowned boxing referee, District Court Judge Mills Lane, of Georgia, USA, who refereed several massive ring battles, including “The Bite Fight”, featuring ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson and Evander ‘Real Deal’ Holyfield; “Let’s get it on!”
If you are a West Indies supporter, you could have either of two quite polarized thoughts about our representatives’ chances of ‘getting far’, even winning CWC 2015.
You could either believe that a major miracle will happen, that our cricketing ambassadors will pull off something very special, or you could expect that they will fall at very early hurdles!
It is not going to be easy for WI.  Their group, “Pool B”, also contains 2015’s favorites in South Africa, India and Pakistan, giant-killers Ireland and Zimbabwe, and confident, never-say-die United Arab Emirates.  This could be that proverbial ‘Group of Death’.
I count myself not only very fortunate to have played for WI, but out-of-this-world to realize that I am one of only very few of our seven or so million people who has actually won the cricket World Cup, and did as well as, if not better than most, in helping WI win CWC No. 2 in 1979.
WI has produced many cricketing legends, but the majority of them never did that.  Indeed, only twenty WI cricketers have ever won World Cups, as WI won the first two stanzas; 1975 and 1979.
In 1975, WI’s squad was: Clive Lloyd – captain, Keith Boyce, Roy Fredericks, Lance Gibbs, Gordon Greenidge, Vanburn Holder, Bernard Julien, Alvin Kallicharran, Rohan Kanhai, Deryck Murray, (Sir) Vivian Richards and (Sir) Andy Roberts.
Boyce and Fredericks are already at ‘that massive oval somewhere else’, but the remainder of this original twelve, whose exploits could never be duplicated, as no other team can ever again win the first cricket World Cup, should always be held in our highest cricket esteem!
When WI won CWC No. 1; 1975; I was studying navigation in Trinidad & Tobago, and could clearly remember that no-one worried about any books at all that final day.
In CWC 1975, Kallicharran had tamed dangerous Australian fast-man Dennis Lillee with murderous cuts and hooks; 78 in only 83 deliveries; as WI beat Australia in one preliminary game.
Thus, “Kalli” and the rest of WI were tuned for that first ever CWC final, especially after Murray and Roberts had put WI there, eking out a very close, unlikely knock-out stage win against excellent Pakistan, that last WI pair adding 64 undefeated, winning runs!
1975’s final was captain Lloyd’s day, as WI amassed 291 in 60 overs!
“Super Cat” mauled the Australians even worse than Kallicharran had done, getting 102 in just 85 deliveries, including twelve fours and two sixes, after Fredericks had trod on his stumps while hooking Lillee for six into St. John’s Road, outside Lords Cricket Ground.
Then Richards ran out three Australians, and that was that!  WI won that 1975 final by 17 runs!
By 1979, CWC No. 2, Colin Croft (yours truly), Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Collis King, Malcolm Marshall, Desmond Haynes, “Larry” Gomes, and Faoud Bacchus had been added to Lloyd, Greenidge, Richards, Kallicharran, Murray and Roberts, to defend 1975’s victory.
So, that tally of WI cricketers who have won an ICC cricket World Cup, to date, is only 20, of whom seventeen are still alive; Marshall having also already gone to that great beyond.
As in everything else, some are kicking better than some!
1979’s tournament was relatively easy for us.  Perhaps the only really difficult games were semi-final against, again, Pakistan, and that 2nd CWC final at Lords.
Beating India and New Zealand, having a no-result against Sri Lanka for rain, put us squarely into the sights of always mercurial Pakistanis.  They nearly beat us.  Maybe they should have!
Batting first in front of 30,000 in bright English sunshine, WI made 293-6, a good but gettable total for a Pakistan team filled with stars.
Majid Khan and Zaheer Abbas added 176 for the 2nd wicket before I managed to clean them both up, and Javed Miandad too as a bonus, getting 3-29 from 11 overs, allowing WI to win by 43 runs.
After that, even with WI at one time 99-4 in 1979’s final, (Sir) Viv’s majestic century, and “Big Bird” Garner’s five wickets kayoed England.  WI won 1979’s final by a mammoth 92 runs!
Those memories are wonderful.  Now for more reality!
2015’s WI have a much more difficult task to simply qualify for quarter finals.  If they can do that, then, as Lloyd used to tell us too, ‘anything can happen’, as each game is then a pure knock-out, and can be won if a team plays well.
How Jason Holder and his guys evolve in the next six weeks could even surprise us all.  Enjoy!
E-mail:  [email protected]

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