The second edition of the Cricket World Cup followed the same format as the first one. The one twist to this took place before the actual tournament. A qualifying tournament, the inaugural ICC trophy, saw Sri Lanka emerge winners and qualify for their second World Cup. But the real drama was elsewhere. This was the age of World Series Cup or as it is popularly known, Kerry Packer's Pajama Cricket! Australia made the mistake of choosing a below-par team but West Indies and Pakistan, fearing a backlash at home, chose all their key players. And it proved to be a good decision.

England kicked off proceedings at Lord's with a six-wicket win over Australia. An under-strength Australia with only a rising Allan Border and Kim Hughes in the team managed just 159 for 9 in 60 overs. In reply, England coasted home after a shaky start thanks to a 53 by Graham Gooch and Mike Brearley's 44. England's team also included rising stars David Gower and Ian Botham to complement the fine breed of experienced players in the side.

The opening day also saw New Zealand, Pakistan and the West Indies beat Sri Lanka, Canada and India respectively ensuring that all competing teams played on the first day. Sri Lanka and Canada had made it to the World Cup by virtue of winning the inaugural ICC Trophy. The rest of the matches in the opening round went as per form with the West Indies, England, New Zealand and Pakistan making it through to the semi-finals.

West Indies played Pakistan in the first semi-final and won comfortably by 43 runs. Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes put together one of their famous opening partnerships and were separated only at 132 but by then the damage had been done. Clive Lloyd and Collis King played some blistering innings to put the West Indian score at a formidable 293. Pakistan, to their credit, did make an attempt, but the West Indian bowling was always too strong. Even a brilliant partnership of 166 between Zaheer Abbas (93) and Majid Khan (81) was not good enough to rescue them. Once Colin Croft got through them, the resistance broke down rather tamely. The West Indies were just one match away from defending their title.

England were overwhelming favourites to beat New Zealand, but it took special innings from Captain Mike Brearley (53) and Graham Gooch (71) to take them to 221. New Zealand was on the cusp of causing an upset, but to England's credit, they never let a substantial partnership take form. John Wright with 69 was the only one apart from Glenn Turner (30) to make any impression. New Zealand did run England close though, and eventually fell short by just 9 runs.

England had two problems coming into the final. They had been stretched to the limit in the semi-final three days earlier and Vivian Richards had decided that he would make the biggest stage in cricket his own. The second problem arose a little late for England to do anything about it!

How England won the toss and bowled with Geoff Boycott still in the team will perhaps remain one of the mysteries of the 20th century! But after what seemed like a reasonable start when they had reduced the West Indies to 99 for 4, the wheels just came off. Richards found Collis King to be an able ally and the two put together a match-winning 139-run partnership. Even after King fell for 86, Richards continued his tirade and was eventually unconquered on 138. The West Indies had put together a big score of 286 and England was on the mat.

England started well with a 129-run opening partnership but it seemed to take too long. As a result, once that partnership was broken, the rest of the batsmen had to hurry. Brearley and Boycott opened and scored 64 and 57 respectively, but both fell in the space of 6 runs. By then, almost 32 overs had been bowled and England's score was just 135 (when the second wicket fell). Gooch and Randall put together a mini-partnership of 47 but once Gooch fell for a valiant 32 off 28, it was a procession of batters! The rest of the seven wickets fell for just 11 runs with Joel Garner picking up five of them. England was all out for 194 and the West Indies had defended their title and won the final by a huge margin of 92 runs.

It is notable that there were only two hundreds in this World Cup and both belonged to the West Indies. What makes champion teams stand out is the fact that their main players deliver when most needed. Greenidge started the World Cup with a 106 against India and Richards ended it on a higher note with his 138 in the final against England.

Greenidge (253 runs in 4 matches) and Richards (217 runs in 4 matches) topped the aggregates followed by Graham Gooch (210 runs in 5 matches). Some of the rising stars of whom much was expected failed to deliver, but the big stars of the day sure did! The 1979 World Cup was also the last one for a lot of stars including Majid Khan and Asif Iqbal. Geoff Boycott thought for a while that he could bowl until he was tonked around the park in the final by the West Indies.

In terms of innovations or viewer pleasure, this tournament offered precious little. Following on from where the 1975 edition left off, it was a tournament completed in just two weeks. Compare that with the upcoming two-month extravaganza and you will know it was almost a blink-and-you-miss affair!

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