OTD in 1975: The beginning of the first World Cup – and an infamous go-slow from Sunil Gavaskar

The Cricket World Cup, the most important competition in One Day International (ODI) cricket, started on this day (June 7) in 1975. Organised by the Cricket Governing Body once in four years, the event was held for the first time in England, the only country that could come up with the resources to host such a mega tournament.

The first three editions were called the Prudential Cup as the tournament was sponsored by financial services company Prudential Plc. The first edition saw the participants of eight teams – Australia, England, the West Indies, Pakistan, India, New Zealand, East Africa and Sri Lanka. Till 1983, the tournament was played in a 60-over format.

The first match of the Cricket World Cup was played between the hosts and India at Lord’s in London. England, Australia, New Zealand and West Indies were the four teams that qualified for the semi-finals. Australia and the West Indies, the then powerhouses of international cricket, met in the final and the latter crowned champions after a 17-run victory.

Gavaskar finds himself in hot water for playing the worst-ever ODI knock

Sunil Gavaskar is arguably one of the greatest opening batters of all time. But the Little Master hogged the ‘limelight’ in the first World Cup edition for playing the worst-ever ODI innings in history. India, led by Srinivas Venkataraghavan, began their campaign with a massive 202-run defeat against England, courtesy of Gavaskar’s infamous 36 not out.

Batting first, the home team posted a competitive total of 334-4 in 60 overs. With India needing nearly a run a ball to win, Gavaskar, who opened the innings, decided to play like a snail. Despite batting through the full 60 overs, the right-hander managed to score just 36* runs off 174 balls with just one boundary. At the end of the game, India had seven wickets in hand but were more than 200 runs short of their opponents.    

Also read: Joe Root became the 14th batter to achieve 10000 Test runs milestone in 2022