Calypso stars in a global ensemble
The 1979 World Cup saw in the West Indian line-up the formation of one of the greatest teams of all time. The West Indian pace battery that terrorized batsman through the 80s took shape with Andy Roberts (in his second tournament), Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Colin Croft.
Besides them, this global tournament saw the entrance of some of the best players of the last thirty years. Among them were Ian Botham, Graham Gooch and David Gower of England, and Kapil Dev of India.
The Australians sent a woefully understrength team because their first-choice players were embroiled in the Packer controversy and not picked for the tournament. Apart from captain Kim Hughes and Alan Border who would become an iconic figure in Australian cricket, the only Australian from that team to be heard of later was fast bowler Rodney Hogg.
The tournament was also the swansong of Pakistan’s Majid Khan and captain Asif Iqbal. For England, captain Mike Brearley and legendary opening bat Geoffrey Boycott played their last World Cup during this edition.
Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards of West Indies topped the run charts with 253 and 217 from four matches respectively. They were also the only century-scorers in the tournament; Greenidge scored his in the first match against India and Richards compiled a stroke-filled, monumental 138 not out in the final against England. One of the iconic World Cup images was of Richards moving across the stumps and swatting the last ball of the innings off his legs over square-leg for six, the hapless bowler being England’s Mike Hendricks.
Although the West Indies middle-order batsman Collis King didn’t do much leading up to the final, he did manage the rare feat of upstaging the great Viv Richards’ century with a scarcely believable 66-ball 86. He came in with the West Indies wobbling at 99-4, and was next out having scored 86 of the next 139 runs, all the more remarkable because he was batting with the master blaster in his pomp.
Graham Gooch of England also showed glimpses of his talent as he steered them through the tough semi-final against New Zealand with an 84-ball 71. He also finished third in the tournament run charts.
On the bowling front, Mike Hendricks of England led the wickets table with 10 wickets, with Brian Mckechnie (New Zealand), Asif Iqbal and Chris Old (England) all taking nine.
It is a testament to the strength of each of the West Indian pace quartet that three of them Garner, Holding and Croft took eight wickets each. Joel ‘Big Bird’ Garner probably bowled the most important spell of the tournament taking 5-38 in the final against England, engineering a collapse from 3-183 to 194 all out.
The top wicketkeepers were West Indies’ Deryck Murray and Wasim Bari from Pakistan with seven dismissals each.
