The HarperCollins Book of World Cup Trivia

By Suvam Pal

Which charismatic Kiwi batsman is also the cousin of Oscar-winning Hollywood actor Russell Crowe?Which South Africa-born motivational speaker played a key role in India's 2011 World Cup win and Germany's 2014 FIFA World Cup victory?Which former cricketer, besides being a successful coach of several teams - including India - is also credited for devising Zimbabwe's car registration system?Which batsman piloted the special flight that flew Arjuna Ranatunga's victorious Sri Lankan team home from Lahore in 1996?The HarperCollins Book of World Cup Trivia is not a mere collection of factoids and cricket records. It skilfully combines history, highlights, statistics and information in one comprehensive and ambitious edition. Starting from the first tournament in England in 1975, to the 2011 edition in the Indian subcontinent, this book is the perfect knowledge companion to the only quadrennial tournament that truly matters in world cricket.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperSport
• Release date: Mar 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9789351771647

Suvam Pal

Suvam Pal is an independent media professional, published author and an avid quizzer. After spending his childhood in Tagore's Santiniketan, he studied at Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) and worked for Headlines Today and Times Now. He has been a semi-fi nalist on two shows on BBC World - Mastermind India and University Challenge. He is the author of the best-selling Sachin: 501 Things You Didn't Know About The Master Blaster and The Ultimate Olympic Quiz Book. He can found on Twitter at @suvvz.

Book preview

1975

1975.jpg

A PIONEERING PROPOSAL SHOT DOWN

Benjamin Gilbert Brocklehurst, popularly known as Ben, had served in the British Army during the second world war and subsequently when he became the captain of Somerset, he was one of the last amateur captains in county cricket. A farmer by profession, he later worked for the magazine, The Cricketer, before buying it. But Brocklehurst is also remembered for being the one who originally came up with the revolutionary idea of hosting a mega event like the World Cup.

With his wife Belinda, he conceptualized and was running several popular competitions in England, including The Cricketer Cup, the National Village Cricket Championship, the Lord’s Taverners’ Colts Trophy, the Company Cup, the European Cup and the Oxford Cricketer Cup in the 1960s and early 1970s. It was during that time Brocklehurst came up with the idea of a multi-nation tournament be played in 1972. His plan was to organize a twenty-one-match event in September 1972, featuring the six Test-playing nations of that era—England, Australia, India, Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand—along with South Africa and a Rest of World team. Ironically, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) shot down the proposal calling it ‘too commercial’.

WOMEN SHOW THE WAY

Women’s cricket may not be as popular as the men’s game but when it comes to the World Cup, it’s they who showed the way. Two years before the gentlemen played their first World Cup games, the ladies were already taking guard at the crease. A well-known promoter of women’s cricket in the Caribbean islands in the late 1960s and 1970s, Jack Hayward, bankrolled the first Women’s World Cup with 40,000 pounds and the lovely silverware. Hosts England, led by their legend Rachael Heyhoe-Flint and powered by the extraordinary exploits of Enid Bakewell—she scored centuries in both the opening game and the final—, underlined their supremacy by beating Australia in the final of the seven-team tournament, also featuring New Zealand, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, International XI and Young England.

BIRTH OF A BLUE RIBAND EVENT

Way back in 1912, there was a futile effort to stage a kind of world championship. The triangular Test series involving the premier Test-playing nations—Australia, England and South Africa—failed to take off, courtesy poor weather. However, sixty-three years later, a world event was eventually staged although with the shorter format of the gentleman’s game. Four years and eighteen matches since the first-ever limited overs match, played between England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 5 January 1971, the World Cup became a reality.

The Prudential Insurance Company pumped in a whopping £1,00,000 to bag the naming rights for the fifteen-day event, featuring eight teams and comprising of fifteen games across six different venues. The six Test playing nations—England, Australia, West Indies, India, Pakistan and New Zealand—were accompanied by two non-Test playing invitees, Sri Lanka and East Africa, at the jamboree held from 7 June to 21 June.

AN UNTYPICALLY BRITISH SUMMER

The weather gods played a stellar role in making the maiden World Cup a hugely successful one. Just five days before the start of the much-anticipated event, a county game was stopped at Buxton in Derbyshire due to snow while another match in Essex was delayed because of biting cold. But the typical grim weather of the English summer didn’t play spoilsport in the fifteen-day long competition. All the matches—one on each day—were played without any divine intervention and not a single ball was lost due to bad weather in the entire tournament.

AN INDIAN BEGINNING TO THE WORLD CUP

After England elected to bat, opener John Jameson took guard to face the first delivery in the World Cup history. His opening partner Dennis Amiss was at the non-striker’s end when Indian medium pacer Madan Lal bowled that historic delivery. Jameson also became the first batsman to be dismissed in a World Cup game, by Mohinder Amarnath—the first bowler to bag a World Cup wicket. Interestingly, Jameson has a strong Indian connection as he was born in the Byculla locality of Mumbai (then Bombay) and studied in the city’s Cathedral and John Connon School before joining Sherwood College in Nainital. A few years later, the young student migrated to England for good and subsequently became a Test cricketer for his new country. Incidentally, both his sports enthusiast parents were also born in India and his hockey-loving father, who had officiated as an umpire in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and 1968 Mexico Olympics in hockey, used to work with the Bombay Police.

FIRST DAY, FIRST SHOW

The captain of England in that historic opening game was Mike Denness, who later became an ICC match referee and caused quite a stir when he imposed a one Test ban on Virender Sehwag and issued similar bans on five other Indian cricketers—Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, Shiv Sunder Das and Deep Dasgupta for various offences, including excessive appealing and ball tampering, during the Test between India and South Africa at Port Elizabeth in November 2001. A key member of India’s legendary spin quartet, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, led India in the game while three Indians—Mohinder Amarnath, Karsan Ghavri and Anshuman Gaekwad made their debut in the limited overs game. The Indians eventually made a meek surrender to the hosts after scoring a lacklustre 132 for 3, chasing the mammoth English total of 334 for 4 in 60 overs. This was the first instance of a team registering 300-plus score in ODIs and also the first win by a margin of 200-plus runs.

THE MILESTONE CENTURION

Thanks to his blistering knock of 137 runs (off 147 deliveries) against India in the opening game of the World Cup, Dennis Amiss created history as the first-ever World Cup centurion and Player of the Match as well. Incidentally, he was also the first cricketer to score an ODI century, when earlier in 1972, in the second ever ODI game, he had slammed 103. In that game at Old Trafford, Amiss also shared a 125-run partnership for the second wicket with Keith Fletcher to reach the milestone of having the first ever hundred-run ODI partnership in the history of cricket. This was also the first-ever instance in the ODI format that a batsman’s individual score was greater than the team’s total, since India made only 132. Later, when he hit his fourth and final ODI century in his last game in 1977, he also became the first ever cricketer to score centuries in both debut and farewell ODIs. The only other cricketer to emulate that milestone was former Caribbean opener Desmond Haynes. Amiss was also one of the first cricketers in the game’s history to wear a helmet during the World Series.

AN EXPENSIVE INDIAN BOWLER

With the hosts amassing the record total of 334 for 4, an Indian bowler ended up with a dubious distinction. Left-arm bowler Karsan Ghavri gave away 83 runs from his 11 overs—that surprisingly included a maiden over—to become the most expensive bowler in a World Cup game. Ghavri’s record remained intact in the first two World Cups before New Zealander Martin Snedden broke the record, conceding 105 runs from his 12 overs in the 1983 World Cup.

‘SNAIL’ GAVASKAR’S WORLD CUP DEBUT

36 runs off 174 deliveries in 60 overs sounds more fictional and seemingly impossible than a real batting score, but that dubious distinction was achieved by none other than Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar. His unbelievably laboured batting display in India’s disastrous 202-run defeat in the opening game came under fire from all quarters. Several pitch invasions were made by frustrated Indian supporters during the Indian innings at Lord’s and the Little Master went on to play the remaining two group games scoring 65 not out and 12 respectively. Interestingly, Gavaskar’s batting average in the tournament, believe it or not, was astonishing 113.

While team manager G.S. Ramchand slammed the iconic opener in his report to the BCCI, a confession made by Gavaskar later was even more dramatic: he disclosed that he had actually been caught behind off the second ball of the innings—but the fielders didn’t appeal—, admitting that he wished he had walked back to the pavilion.

UMPIRES FOR HISTORIC OPENER

England’s John Langridge and David Constant were the umpires for the historic opening game at Lord’s.

After playing first-class cricket for Kent and Leicestershire for a few seasons, Constant had retired as a cricketer and became an umpire at the age of twenty-seven. In 1971, a twenty-nine-year-old Constant had become the second youngest Test umpire from his country after Frank Chester (twenty-eight at his debut).

On the other hand, Langridge had a prolific county career with Sussex although his dream of playing a Test remained elusive for good. Although he was selected for the 1939-40 tour of India, the series was unfortunately cancelled as World War II broke out. The prolific cricketer—he had seventy-six first-class hundreds—was never chosen to play for England again and only Alan Jones of Glamorgan is above him in the list of all-time run scorers who never played a single Test for England.

A RAINBOW TEAM FROM AFRICA

East Africa was a unique team in the history of World Cup cricket. As South Africa was barred due to apartheid policies and erstwhile Rhodesia—later to become Zimbabwe—faced isolation due to the controversial Ian Smith regime, the combined team was invited to represent the African continent in the inaugural event. This team, a bunch of club cricketers from the eastern African countries—Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia—put together a team to rub shoulders with some of the greatest cricketers of all time. Most players in this team were cricketers of Indian descent and majority of them belonged to the families of expatriates from Gujarat, settled in eastern African cities like Nairobi and Mombasa.

MISSING STARS OF MINNOWS

Although they formed a team with a bunch of club cricketers, East Africa had the choice to include two prolific county cricketers in their World Cup squad – Basharat Hassan of Nottinghamshire and John Solanky of Glamorgan. Despite being the most experienced and well known among the East African cricketers, they didn’t feature in this all-important cricketing event. Kenya-born Hassan was a regular player for the Notts and later became the twelfth man for England in a Test in 1985 at Trent Bridge during the Ashes. On the other hand, Tanzania-born Solanky only had experience playing county cricket, but he went on to become a squash professional. Later, he taught technology at a school.

AN UNSUCCESSFUL CAPTAIN

Kenyan middle order batsman of Indian origin, Harilal Shah was the captain of East Africa. The team under him not only failed to win a single game in the tournament but he himself had a terrible run with his bat. He scored a pair of ducks in his team’s first two games and he could manage to make just 6 runs in their third and final game of the tournament. He holds the dubious distinction of being the first-ever batsman to score a duck in the World Cup history.

CRICKETER-TURNED PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR

In an East African side dominated by Indian origin cricketers, John Nagenda was one of the couple of players of African origin. The medium-pacer opened the bowling in the match against New Zealand and took one wicket in that solitary game he played in the World Cup. Nagenda later pursued journalism and went on to become a leading columnist in East Africa, an honorary member of the National Institute of Journalists of Uganda and a senior media advisor to Ugandan president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

FATHER OF A FUTURE WORLD CUP CRICKETER

Lancashire-born Donald James Pringle, popularly called ‘Don’, was a bowling spearhead of the East African team and also the oldest debutant in ODI history at that time. The landscape consultant was forty-three years and forty-one days old when he opened the bowling in his team’s second World Cup game against India at Headingley after missing the first match due to an injury. The medium-pacer did play another match, but failed to bag a single wicket in the entire tournament. Unfortunately, in the same year he was killed in a car crash while returning home from a club game in Nairobi in which he had taken 6 wickets for 16. Pringle’s son, Derek, is a former England Test cricketer and followed his father’s footsteps to play in the World Cup.

DEBUT FOR ‘DOUBLE ALL BLACK’

When he made his international debut for New Zealand in the second game of the tournament, Brian McKechnie achieved a unique feat. The lone ODI debutant for the Black Caps in the game against East Africa became the first cricketer to play in the cricket World Cup apart from representing his country in rugby. This made him the first professional ‘double All Black’ and the first All Black player to play any ODI game. Unlike his compatriots and ‘double All Black’ predecessors Eric Tindill (the only person to have played Tests in both cricket and rugby union for New Zealand), George Dickinson and Curly Page, McKechnie never played Test cricket and featured in fourteen ODIs for the Kiwis. Incidentally, he is also remembered for being the batsman who faced Trevor Chappell’s infamous ‘underarm delivery’ in his last ODI for New Zealand in 1981.

TURNER TURNS THE SCREW

Many records were tumbling on the opening day when New Zealand captain Glenn Turner smashed an unbeaten 171 against East Africa at Edgbaston, Birmingham. The legendary Kiwi opener not only registered the first ever 150-plus score in the history of ODI cricket but his score also remained a world record by a batsman in limited overs cricket until Kapil Dev made the famous 175 against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup. This was also the second instance of a batsman carrying his bat through the full quota of overs in a World Cup game after Sunil Gavaskar’s 36 against England. Turner’s 201-ball epic knock is still the longest ODI innings in terms of balls while his unbeaten 114 off 177 deliveries against India just a week later in the same tournament is the second longest innings in ODI history. Thanks to both his tons, the New Zealander went on to become the top scorer of the first World Cup.

THREE BROTHERS IN A TEAM!

Former New Zealand Test captain Walter Hadlee’s sons, Richard and Dayle and their compatriots Geoff and Hedley Howarth, were the first brothers to appear in a World Cup game when they played their opening encounter against East Africa. Another Hadlee brother, Barry, was also in the squad but failed to make it to the playing XI. However, the group game versus England at Trent Bridge witnessed the rare moment a first in ODIs when all three Hadlee brothers played an ODI for the first time.

Test cricket too witnessed something similar when the three brothers – W.G. Grace, Fred Grace and Edward Grace – made their debut against Australia at the Oval in 1880. A couple of years later, Alec and George Hearne made their debut for England while the third brother, Frank, earned his maiden Test cap for South Africa in the same Test at Newlands in 1892. Well-known Pakistani brothers—Hanif, Mushtaq and Sadiq—all played against New Zealand at Karachi in 1969-70.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Two pairs of brothers made appearances in the group league game between Australia and Pakistan. Former Australia Test cricketer Victor Richardson’s grandsons, Greg and Ian Chappell, were in the Australian playing XI while Hanif Mohammad’s younger brothers, Sadiq and Mushtaq, played the game for Pakistan at Headingley. Incidentally, two cousins—Imran Khan and Majid Khan—also featured in the same game on 7 June 1975.

FIRST FIFER IN ODI HISTORY

Fiery Australian seamer Dennis Lillee kickstarted the Australian World Cup campaign in style. His superb bowling figures of 5 for 34 against Pakistan not only clinched a victory for the Aussies in the opening game but also made him the first bowler to bag five wickets in the history of ODI cricket as well as World Cup.

THOMSON’S DUBIOUS DISTINCTION

Lillee’s lethal bowling partner, Jeff Thomson, made a disappointing start to the first World Cup. Then the world’s fastest bowler, Thomson bowled five no-balls—one of which was also signalled as a wide—in his very first over and a whopping twelve no-balls in his eight overs in the game against Pakistan. This was one of the longest overs in the history of ODIs and continues to remain the maximum number of no-balls bowled in a single over as well as in an ODI innings by a single bowler.

SHORTEST GAME AND EXHIBITION MATCH

The group league game between West Indies and ODI debutant Sri Lanka ended in just 58 overs as the mighty Caribbean side finished the game after bundling out the then whipping boys of world cricket for a paltry 86 runs. The match ended at 3.30 p.m. local time, thanks to the bowling exploits of Bernard Julien, Keith Boyce and Andy Roberts. Subsequently, a twenty-over exhibition game was organized between the two teams for the 5,000-odd spectators present at Old Trafford.

THE FIRST SRI LANKAN CAPTAIN

Anura Tennekoon became the first cricketer to lead the then non-Test-playing nation Sri Lanka in an international match when his team played against West Indies. Tennekoon’s selection as the captain of the World Cup squad came close on the heels of his spectacular unbeaten innings of 169 against India in an ‘unofficial’ match in 1974. But the prolific batsman was unlucky enough to begin his international career with a duck at Old Trafford and after leading the side in the remaining two World Cup games. He continued to lead the side in the 1979 World Cup, but after playing just one game, he missed the remaining matches of the tournament due to an injury and never played international cricket ever again.

FLETCHER FETCHES A HUNDRED

Continuing his terrific show, Keith Fletcher scored the second World Cup hundred for England in the game against New Zealand at Trent Bridge. Put in to bat, the hosts were reduced to 28 for 2, before a brilliant Fletcher steadied the ship and hit a magnificent 131 before running himself out. The third century of the tournament also guided England to a respectable 266 that turned out to be too much for the Kiwis as the home side won their second successive game of the competition. Incidentally, this was the only ODI hundred scored by Fletcher in his entire career.

GREIG GROUNDS THE KIWIS

He might have failed with the bat scoring just 9 runs but Tony Greig turned the terminator for England against the Kiwis at Nottingham. The tall medium-pacer captured his career best 4 for 45 to dismantle the New Zealand batting and thus contributing to a convincing 80-run victory for his team. This was the only occasion when Greig bagged more than 2 wickets in an ODI and his previous best ODI bowling figures was 2 for 27 against India at the Oval in 1974.

HEAVIEST DEFEAT AND LARGEST VICTORY

If India’s 202-run defeat against England was the largest margin of loss in terms of runs, then their emphatic ten-wicket win against East Africa was the largest margin of victory in the inaugural World Cup. Sadly, only 720 tickets were sold for the India versus East Africa tie and it still remains one of the lowest attendances in a World Cup match.

BEDI’S SUPER SAVER

Bishan Singh Bedi’s incredible bowling figures of 12–8–6–1 helped India win their first-ever World Cup game. After being dropped for the opening game against England, Bedi made a stunning case for himself against minnows East Africa at Headingley. His superb bowling figures helped India restrict their opponents for a paltry 120. That win was India’s only victory in the inaugural World Cup. The lone wicket he picked during his magical spell was that of Yunus Badat.

AN ‘ENGINEER’-ING FEAT

Farokh Engineer’s unbeaten 54 off 93 balls against East Africa not only guided India to its first victory, but also set a few records. Along with his match-winning half century, Engineer’s brilliant glove work behind the stumps made him the first-ever Indian to be declared Player of the Match in a World Cup game. He was also the first ever wicketkeeper to score a half century in the tournament.

THE OTHER CENTURION TURNER

His namesake, Glenn, was the toast of the first World Cup, being the top scorer with two centuries, but Australian opener Alan Turner also made a mark in the tournament. Like his Kiwi counterpart, Alan scored a century as he hit a classy 101 off 113 balls against Sri Lanka at the Oval. His knock not only guided the Aussies to a 52-run victory but also made Turner the first ever Australian to score a century in an ODI. The left-hander was the top scorer among the Australian batsmen in the tournament.

FIERY THOMMO DELIVERS DOUBLE BLOW

Playing only their second international game, the Sri Lankans were fighting valiantly to chase down the mammoth Australian score of 328 for 5. But the two in-form batsmen who were building a big partnership in the middle were hit by Thomson in quick succession. Playing in an era when helmets weren’t introduced to the game, Duleep Mendis—batting on 32—was struck on the head while ducking to a rising delivery of the then fastest bowler on earth. A few overs later, his partner, the promising opener Sunil Wettimuny—unbeaten on 53—was first injured by a really fast one from Thomson and had to take a runner. In the very next over, Wettimuny was hit again by the Australian’s deadly yorker and limped off the field. Both the batsmen were taken to St. Thomas’s Hospital and Sri Lanka’s chances of pulling off a historic win were jeopardized.

CHAPPELL, THE BOWLER

Even after two of their in-form batsmen were retired hurt, captain Anura Tennekoon and Michael Tissera built a gritty 82-run partnership to put the Lankans on course for an upset win at the Oval. But Australian skipper Ian Chappell brought himself into the attack and his leg-breaks got the much needed breakthroughs for his team. Although he failed with the bat after being dismissed for just 4 runs, Chappell sent both Lankan batsmen back to the pavilion and returned with career best bowling figures of 2 for 14. These were the only wickets the Australian batsman bagged in his ODI career.

PROTESTERS INVADE PITCH

The game between Australia and Sri Lanka saw a group of Tamil students invading the pitch to protest against the absence of any Tamil-speaking players in the Sri Lankan team. As the Lankan fast bowler Tony Opatha was getting ready to bowl the fifth over of the Australian innings, ten-odd demonstrators jumped the fence and ran towards the pitch, shouting and waving banners. They stayed put in the middle for several minutes before the police escorted them away from the centre and play resumed.

EDGE-OF-THE-SEAT THRILLER AT EDGBASTON

West Indies survived a scare against Pakistan in Edgbaston when the two teams played one of the most thrilling matches in World Cup history. Thanks to half centuries by stand-in skipper Majid Khan—an unwell Asif Iqbal was rested—, Mushtaq Mohammad and Wasim Raja, Pakistan put up an impressive total of 266 for 7 in the do-or-die game. In reply, the famed Caribbean batting suffered an unusual collapse; they were reduced to 166 for 8 and subsequently 203 for 9. The West Indies tail enders miraculously clinched a one-wicket win—with two balls to spare—from the jaws of what could have been a major upset.

UNSUNG HERO IGNORED

In the thriller against West Indies, Pakistan pacer Sarfraz Nawaz was adjudged Player of the Match for his four-wicket haul but the real match-winner was West Indies wicketkeeper Deryck Murray. His unbeaten 61 and the crucial ninth- and tenth-wicket partnerships with Vanburn Holder and Andy Roberts respectively saved the day for West Indies. Murray, a future diplomat for Trinidad and Tobago at the United Nations, added 37 with Holder for the ninth wicket before putting together an invincible, match-winning 64-run last-wicket stand with a young Roberts, who was playing only his second ODI. But unfortunately, match referee Tom Graveney chose to ignore Murray’s heroics and gave the coveted award to the Pakistani pacer.

IMRAN TAKES OXFORD EXAM, MISSES GAME

Pakistan’s valiant effort against the West Indies came at a game in which two of their key players weren’t playing. While skipper Asif Iqbal was recuperating from a haemorrhoid operation in a hospital in Birmingham, dashing all-rounder Imran Khan skipped the game to sit for his final exam at Oxford University. In fact, Imran, who had enrolled in Keble College in Oxford in 1972, was reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics and the inaugural World Cup coincided with his final year exams. So even though he played in Pakistan’s first match versus Australia, he had to pull out of the all-important game against the Caribbean side. Thankfully, Imran was back for the final group league game against Sri Lanka.

YOUNGEST DEBUTANT SHINES

Just a day before turning eighteen, Javed Miandad became the then youngest cricketer in the history of limited overs cricket in Pakistan’s second group league game against West Indies in Birmingham. The new kid on the block went on to justify his inclusion in the playing eleven by playing a cameo of 24. He didn’t just contribute with the bat, the young debutant also dismissed a dangerous Clive Lloyd for 53 with his leg-break. This was the first of Miandad’s six successive World Cup appearances.

FIRST BANGLADESH-BORN WORLD CUPPER

Bangladesh may have made their World Cup debut in 1987, but a Bangladesh-born cricketer played in the 1975 edition. Dhaka-born Pervez Jamil Mir made his international debut for Pakistan in the thrilling game against West Indies. The all-rounder bagged the prize wicket of Viv Richards in his first match and played one more game in the World Cup in his very brief ODI career of three matches. Mir later became a successful TV anchor and political talk-show host before becoming the media manager of the Pakistan cricket team.

SNOW BOWLS FIRE

England pacer John Snow bowled one of the fieriest spells in World Cup history in the inconsequential group league match against East Africa. The pacer delivered a stunning spell, taking 4 wickets for 5 runs in 6 overs to guide the hosts to an easy 196-run victory. Snow’s overall bowling