The World Cup 2011 is here and so the advertisers say. Heard that Sachin is looking down from an ad and announcing it with huge countdown boards in the various stadia in India. ICC at last has taken the event to where it should belong. Cricket is not a universal game like football and has more followers in Asia-Pacific than anywhere else. It was logical that this part of the world should host the premier event atleast every decade.
The event takes me back many years to the times when I was a kid when tests were the TEST and one day was just another format played once in four years. The world cups of 1975 and 1979 though I was too young to comprehend ,was characterised by the complete dominance of West Indies. The two other teams which were just about competing with them were Australia and England. These teams were competing more against each other than against the mighty Clive Lloyd's team as they were called.
I remember watching some of the highlights from these matches on a video cassette called "Wills video of One day Cricket". The sight of Dennis Lillee running up and bowling to Roy Fredricks , Fredricks hit wicket falling over on the hook shot, Clive Lloyd's century characterised by brutal and assured strokeplay, Gilmour's five for and of course Richards' fielding to get the most important Aussie wickets.
Many people would remember the Indian lows , where Sunny scored 36 when we were chasing England's 300+ runs , Glenn Turner hitting a century in the India-NZ match. Few would remember that Venkatraghavan was the captain and Mohinder Amarnath played as an opening bowler. Those were the days when it was a 60 over contest and where conditions were more favourable to swing and India had spinners who found it difficult to grip the ball. Does that explain India's poor showing ??
What remains etched however in us from this world cup is Sunny Bhai's 36 which Sunny himself tried to undo in the later part of his one day career and was fairly successful.
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