The game changed dramatically over the next two editions of the World Cup. Players would even have to raise a din, as would the rival skippers before the ’79 final, for their team members to be handed three tickets each. West Indies destroyed all competition and became the kings of cricket, and when they successfully defended the title four years on, their dominance seemed absolute.īack then, a pound could fetch a ticket to a group stage match, and a couple more would get you in for the final. Mohammad Ali beat Joe Frazier to win the “Thrilla in Manila”, and Arthur Ashe beat Jimmy Connors to become the first coloured player to win the Wimbledon.Ĭricket, too, embarked on a new journey, with the runaway success of a limited-overs tournament as the first World Cup was hosted by England.
Sholay opened to an unbelievable reception in cinema halls (that’s what they were called back then). India faced its tryst with an authoritarian government. The Bobby Moore-led England football team won the FIFA World Cup that year, and Colin Cowdrey’s men and their triumph was duly forgotten.Īlmost a decade later, the ICC finally got its act together and came up with the official World Cup in 1975.ġ975 turned out to be a remarkable year, for cricket and otherwise. Old timers though would recall, perhaps with a sense of anguish, that England did win a cricket World Cup, or sort of a world cup, when they won a hastily coined three-match tourney by tobacco giant Rothmans in 1966 at a time the shorter format of the game aspired to be more than just novelty.įate played a cruel hand. A title win, a first for them, might lift a bit of the gloom that has descended since the Brexit mess became the biggest talking point in the country. The hosts go into this tournament as the top ranked team in this format. In 1999, Manchester United went on to win the Champions League, and Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi slugged it out for the top spot in the ATP rankings.Īs cricket’s biggest spectacle unfolds once more in England after 20 years, yet another English club would be lifting the Champions League title this Sunday, while the Rabadas and the Kohlis are the top draws at the World Cup.Ī lot remains eerily similar or suggestive of being the same, while a lot has changed in ODI cricket.Įngland, which was thrice runners-up in the first five editions, was unable to win even a single knock-out game after that. Indian captain Virat Kohli was in junior school, and Caribbean batsman Chris Gayle was a few months away from his first-class debut.
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