A tournament with 15 matches and 8 teams would hardly qualify as the World Cup today (the recent tri-nation series in Australia had 12 matches in the first stage). And back in 1975, the reluctance was even more because Test Cricket was the 'real' game and the traditional administrators of the game were not too keen on change. So to avoid any potential discomfort, the tournament was called the Prudential World Cup.

In fact, the 1975 tournament was not the first tournament of its kind. In 1912, England had invited Australia and South Africa to have a triangular Test series. But bad weather and a below-par South Africa made the tournament a disaster. And in 1912, the administrators were even more rigid! So the idea was shelved and not even considered again until the 1950s when crowds at Tests were declining visibly. There were two more important events that proved to be the triggers for the 1975 Prudential World Cup.

In 1971, a washed out Test forced the organisation of a 40-over match (eight-ball overs) between England and Australia and the success this match enjoyed proved to the administrators that there was indeed a future to the shorter version of the game. Furthermore, the successful organisation of the women's World Cup in 1973 was another signal that one-day cricket's time had come. England was the automatic choice as the venue because it was largely believed that no other country was equipped enough to host.

Eight teams… England, Australia, West Indies, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and East Africa were taking part. The strongest contenders were the West Indies but the other teams expected to give the Windies a run were Australia, England and New Zealand. The rest, it would seem, were around only to make up the numbers! And true to form, the big guns started in blazing fashion.

England played India in the first match and racked up a massive 334 for 4 in 60 overs. Dennis Amiss (137), Keith Fletcher (68) and Chris Old (51 off 30 balls) were the chief destroyers for India. To be fair, India didn't have too much of a chance from the beginning, but what transpired was simply incredulous. Viswanath top scored for India with 37 while the others seemed like they were playing for a draw! India didn't lose many wickets (just 3 in fact) and crawled to 132 in their allotted 60 overs. It was in this match that Sunil Gavaskar played his infamous innings of 36 in 60 overs. Although no action was taken against it at the time and he maintained a stoic silence about it, he late admitted this as being his "worst innings ever". In fact, he is reported to have said that he wanted to get out on the day but it just wasn't happening!

None of the other matches could quite match the drama of this opening match and went pretty much according to form… New Zealand routed East Africa by 181 runs with Glenn Turner scoring a scorching 171 in a New Zealand total of 309. East Africa never really had a chance and was bundled out for just 128.

In all, there were three scores of 300-plus and although this was a tournament in which each innings would have 60 overs, chasing this was not easy. Before this World Cup, there had been all of 18 ODIs around the world and naturally, there wasn't much method or technique about chasing a score. Most small and medium size targets were chased down (the highest chase was West Indies' 267 against Pakistan and it almost took all of the 60 overs!) but the larger ones were virtually unachieved. Ironically, in the final, Australia fell short of batsmen rather than overs chasing the West Indies' 291-8!

The format of the tournament was straightforward. The eight teams were divided in two groups of four each with the top two from each progressing to the semi-finals. West Indies topped group B followed by Australia while England topped Group A with New Zealand coming in second. Along the way, some new records were set and stars discovered. Gary Gilmour took 11 wickets for Australia while Imran Khan was starting to get himself noticed. None of the sub-continental teams managed to progress beyond the group stages.

The first semi-final saw the old rivalry of England and Australia in a shortened avatar! Australia won the toss and put England in to bat. Mike Denness and G Arnold were the only two batsmen (apart from the extras) to make double figures. Gary Gilmour (6/14) and M Walker (3/22) wrecked England dismissing them for a meagre 93. The chase was never going to be easy, though, and England almost pulled off a miracle. Chris Old, John Snow and G Arnold almost did the impossible. At one stage, Australia was 39 for 6 and in real danger of losing. But Walters and Rod Marsh stuck around to achieve the required 94 runs.

Australia must have been praying hard that New Zealand defeat the West Indies, but the West Indian bowling was too good. Julien, Roberts and Holder bowled fast, accurate and economically to restrict New Zealand to just 158 runs. Back in the day, not much was perhaps thought that New Zealand did not last their quota of 60 overs (they were bowled out in 52.2), but surely a precedent had been set. West Indies lost half their side in the chase, but when the fifth wicket fell, they needed just 8 more to win. Alvin Kallicharan and Gordon Greenidge were the architects of West Indies' victory and got them through to the first of three successive finals.

Unlike many finals that have since been played, the first ever Cricket World Cup final was an exciting match. Australia won the toss and invited the West Indies to bat hoping to recreate their efforts from the semi-final. But they came up against a much stronger batting line-up and a captain determined to make a mark. Clive Lloyd scored 102 and forged a 149-run partnership with Rohan Kanhai to take the West Indies to 291 for 8 and put the pressure squarely back on Australia.

Australia was going well in reply and looked on course to achieve the target until a flurry of wickets late in the innings let them at 233 for 9. Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson fought on and Australia needed 18 runs in 8 balls when Thomson was run out for 21. The West Indies had stamped their superiority on both forms of the game and started a legacy that would last for the next decade and a half. The favourites had lived up to their billing.

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