A very poor advertisement for Indian cricket

It has faded from my memory. There was not much to remember actually.

It was the first World Cup ever, and not much was expected from us. But frankly, I expected to do better than what we eventually did.

It is not possible for me to relate to the present generation. I am grateful my kids call me “Dad” and not “Hi Bish.” It does feel nice when I am told the young kids want to know about what we did. It really feels nice.

In 1975, when the World Cup was announced, I was already playing county cricket for Northamptonshire in England. County cricket also offered the limited-over variety but honestly most of us in the team had no clue.

We were getting decent crowds at Test matches in India and there was hardly any need for us to push for the shorter version of the game. It has become shorter and shortest now!

Is it not interesting to know that Sir Donald Bradman was the one who thought of having the first one-Day International in 1971?

True, circumstances led to the creation of the first ever one-day match, involving Australia and England, since the administrators wanted to raise money. They did.

When the idea of a World Cup was born, the countries that really fancied themselves were Australia and England. West Indies, the eventual champion, was a strong side and Pakistan unpredictable. These four teams, we knew, would decide the course of the Cup and its future. The Prudential World Cup was an experiment, but it took off in a big way. All teams were comfortable except us.

I remember the inaugural match of the World Cup. We played England at Lord's. It was a packed house and we let them down. In fact, we made a mockery of the game and the occasion.

The greatest opening batsman of all time (Sunil Gavaskar) spent all 60 overs at the crease to make 36. We were a huge embarrassment. That day at Lord's, it was a very poor advertisement for Indian cricket.

England hammered 300-plus (334 for four in 60 overs) and we responded poorly (132 for three in 60 overs). I was not playing that game and walked around the ground. I can never forget the abuses that flew at us from the spectators, especially near the sponsor's enclosure. I became their target. I remember talking to G.S. Ramchand (manager) and requesting him to allow me to go back and play for Northants if we were going to put up such a shabby performance in a World Cup fixture.

I am sure we were not physically and mentally equipped to understand the one-day game and play it as it should have been. We were not the swiftest on the field and not geared up to go for the ball. We played in creams and the colour was meant only for the ball (red). When I reflect on that game, I think we focused on being technically perfect instead of trying out innovations.

I had played a lot of one-day cricket for my county before the World Cup but don't remember ever bowling flat. Even in a Gillette Cup final against Lancashire (in 1976) I did not compromise with my style.

I bowled my normal stuff, just as I did against East Africa (12-8-6-1) and New Zealand (12-6-28-1) in the World Cup. I just kept rolling my arm. I must confess the boundaries were the farthest then and the bats not so powerful.

We lost to England and New Zealand and the consolation came following our expected victory over East Africa. Our captain, S. Venkatraghavan, did a wonderful job with the team he was given.

We were paid a pittance per day but it was a great learning experience for us all. Four members of that 1975 team, Mohinder Amarnath, Sunil Gavaskar, Madan Lal and Syed Kirmani were part of the 1983 squad that made history.