The 1975 Cricket World Cup (officially called the Prudential Cup '75) was the inaugural men's Cricket World Cup, and the first major tournament in the history of One Day International (ODI) cricket. Organised by the International Cricket Conference (ICC), it took place in England, between 7 June and 21 June 1975.
The tournament was sponsored by Prudential Assurance Company and had eight participating countries: the six Test-playing teams of the time – Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, the West Indies – and the two leading Associate nations at the time – Sri Lanka and East Africa. The teams were divided into two groups of four, with each team playing each other in their group once; the top two from each group qualified for the semi-finals, with the winners of these matches meeting in the final. Each match consisted of 60 overs per side and was played in traditional white clothing and with red balls; all were played and ended in daylight.
England and New Zealand finished as the top two teams in Group A, while the West Indies finished top of the Group B table ahead of Australia as the four teams qualified through to the semi-finals. After Australia defeated England and the West Indies defeated New Zealand in the semi-finals, the West Indies which came into the tournament as favourites, defeated Australia in the final at Lord's by 17 runs to become the first World Cup winners. New Zealand batsman, Glenn Turner was the top run-scorer for the tournament with 333 runs, whilst Australian bowler Gary Gilmour was the top wicket-taker with 11 wickets despite only playing in the final two matches.
Background The first multilateral cricket competition at international level was the 1912 Triangular Tournament in England. This was played between the three test nations at the time – England, Australia and South Africa. The concept was later dropped because of inclement weather and a lack of public interest. The first one-day match to occur was in 1962 when four English county cricket teams filled in a gap to play in a limited overs knockout competition. It was won by Northamptonshire who defeated Leicestershire by five wickets.
The limited-over format had been used in what sponsors marketed as a 'World Cricket Cup' in England in 1966 and 1967, contested between England, a Rest of the World XI, and a touring team (the West Indies in 1966 and Pakistan in 1967). The marketing of the event was clearly influenced by the hosting of the 1966 FIFA World Cup in the same country. The 1966 'World Cricket Cup' was won by England, that in 1967 by the Rest of the World. A report in the Cricketer implied that the last such match in this "Triangular Tournament", between Pakistan and the Rest of the World was neither well-attended nor taken entirely seriously: "It was a pity that a larger crowd was not present ... Sobers took the Cup and the World Xl took the gold medals. They must have enjoyed their holiday".
It was not until 1971 that the first official One Day International (ODI) took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) as a replacement for the third test of the 1970–71 Ashes series between Australia and England. This was due to a deluge of rain that had affected the match for the first three days of the test. The match was a forty over match with each over being eight deliveries. After England made 190 from 39.4 overs, Australia chased the target at a steady rate to secure the match with 42 balls remaining. Two years later at Lord's during the 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup, plans were made for a men's tournament to take place in 1975. The tournament was planned to involve all the Test nations at the time in two group stages with the top two in each group qualifying for the knockout stage with the final at Lord's.Browning (1999), p. 4
Format The format of the 1975 Cricket World Cup had the eight teams split into two groups of four, with each team playing the others in their group once. Each match was played over 60 overs per side with group stage matches scheduled to take place between 7 and 14 June.Streeton R (1974) Significant changes in next summer's fixture list, The Times, 5 November 1974, p. 12. (Available online at The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved 22 November 2023.) Each match was played entirely during day, with a cut off time of 7.30 pm. Three days were allocated to each match with each able to be continued if they were halted for rain or bad light.Woodcock J (1975) The great, unthinkable World Cup, The Times, 7 June 1975, p. 20. (Available online at The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved 21 November 2023.)
The top two teams from each group advanced to the semi-finals on 18 June, with the winners qualifying for the final at Lord's on 21 June.
Participants
Eight teams were invited to compete at the World Cup: the six full members of the International Cricket Conference (ICC), and two other teams – Sri Lanka and East Africa. South Africa was not allowed to complete due to the sporting boycott of the country which took place during apartheid era, the ICC having placed a moratorium on tours of the country in 1970.Booth D (1998) The race game : sport and politics in South Africa p 99. London: Frank Cass.
Before the competition began the teams were split into two groups.Prudential cup prize money totals £9,000, The Times, 14 January 1975, p. 9. (Available online at The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved 22 November 2023.) The ICC made the decision to place the two teams which were not Test playing countries in separate groups. They also decided to place England and Australia in separate groups and to do the same with India and Pakistan.Williamson M (2015) The birth of the World Cup, CricInfo, 31 January 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
TeamMethod of qualificationGroupFull memberBInvitationAFull member and hostAFull memberAFull memberAFull memberBInvitationBFull memberB
Venues
Six grounds were used to host matches during the tournament. The announcement of venues began on 26 July 1973 when the ICC announced that the tournament would be played, with Lord's as the venue for the final. The remaining venues were announced on 5 November 1974, with the scheduling for the tournament announced alongside that for the five county cricket tournaments that would take place during the 1975 season.
Other than Lord's, which hosted only one group stage match, and The Oval which hosted three, each of the grounds was used for two matches during the group stage. Headingley and The Oval were the grounds chosen for the two semi-finals.
CityGroundCapacityLondonLord's25,000Woodcock J (1975) West Indies the biggest danger to themselves, The Times, 21 June 1975, p. 21. (Available online at The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved 22 November 2023.)LondonThe Oval23,500BirminghamEdgbaston20,000ManchesterOld Trafford19,000NottinghamTrent Bridge15,350LeedsHeadingley21,000
Squads
Before the competition began each team named a squad of 14 players.Robinson, Higgs dropped for World Cup, The Canberra Times, 6 June 1975. (Available online at Trove. Retrieved 21 November 2023.)
Preparations Heading into the first Cricket World Cup, the Ladbrokes betting agency had the West Indies as the favourites at 9–4. This was followed by England at 11–4 with Pakistan and Australia in third and fourth respectively. East Africa was last in the betting odds at 1500–1.Browning (1999), p. 5 Before the tournament, most of the teams played in warm-up matches against English county teams to get used to the English conditions with most of the national teams getting wins. Only East Africa, Sri Lanka and India lost at least one warm-up match before the tournament. Australia played in Canada, losing to Eastern Canada and drawing with Toronto, before heading to England.
Eight days before the World Cup, the ICC declared in a unanimous decision that any of the balls that went over a batsman's head would be called wide due to the fast short-pitched bowling.
Group stage Summary The opening round of matches took place on 7 June with four matches being played. The match at Lord's saw England deliver the highest score by a team in the 60 over match with 334 runs being scored. Dennis Amiss top scored for the English with 137 from 147 balls helped by Keith Fletcher and Chris Old who each recorded a half-century. In response, Sunil Gavaskar batted through the entire innings for only 36 runs off 174 balls, prompting Gulabrai Ramchand to speculate that he was treating the match as batting practice. Australia opened their campaign with a win against Pakistan at Headingley with a 73-run victory. This was due to Dennis Lillee's five-wicket haul which brought Pakistan's hope of a win crashing down as they collapsed from 181 for four to be all out for 205. Earlier, Ross Edwards top scored for Australia with 80 as he aided the Australians in getting 94 runs from the last 13 overs to bring Australia to 278 for seven from their 60 overs.Browning (1999), p. 12 The other two matches saw easy wins for the West Indies and New Zealand. For Glenn Turner, he occupied the crease during the whole New Zealand innings as he top scored with 171 as New Zealand won by 181 runs over East Africa. The West Indies took a nine-wicket victory over Sri Lanka who became the first team to score under 100 runs in a One Day International.Browning (1999), pp. 10–11
Despite missing two players due to operation – Asif Iqbal – and examinations – Imran Khan – Pakistan was not fazed by the missing players in the second round of games with the team scoring 266 for seven from their 60 overs with standing captain Majid Khan top scoring for Pakistan with 60.Browning (1999), p. 17 In response, the West Indies fell to 166 for eight which included a period of three wickets for only 10 runs as Bernard Julien, Clive Lloyd and Keith Boyce all losing their wickets. But the last wicket pair of Deryck Murray and Andy Roberts stole the match away as the West Indies won by a wicket off the final over. The other match in Group B saw Australia claim their second victory, but it was not all smooth with the Australian captain Ian Chappell remarking in an interview that the English media was trying to unsettle Australia's plans due to the Jeff Thomson no-ball problem with Chappell saying: "I've seen this sort of thing before in England". On the field, Alan Turner scored a century as Australia ended with 328 with Sri Lanka falling 52 runs short as John Mason from The Daily Telegraph stated that they might not have many new admirers with their short ball stuff sending two Sri Lankan batsman to hospital.Browning (1999), pp. 15–16 Group A saw two convincing wins to England and India. At Trent Bridge, Keith Fletcher top scored for England with 131 as he guided the English to their second victory and going to the lead of the group table with an 80-run win over New Zealand. The other match in Group A saw 720 spectators observe India record a 10-wicket victory with Madan Lal taking three wickets for India, after East Africa were all-out for only 120.Browning (1999), pp. 14–15