The first Men’s World Cup was played in 1975, a time when India had still not woken up to the idea of One-Day Internationals (ODIs). There was the occasional local tournament, but Test cricket was, by and large, the only format taken seriously in the nation. S. Venkataraghavan, who had some experience of limited-overs cricket at Derbyshire, was named captain. The first World Cup – eventually a resounding success – would be unrecognizable from today’s ODIs: 60-over matches, white attire, red ball, no field restrictions, lunch and tea intervals…
The 1970s
India’s first-ever World Cup match exposed their lack of understanding of the format. After England amassed 334-4, India crawled to 132-3 without any sense of urgency. Sunil Gavaskar batted through the 60 overs for a 174-ball 36 not out. Team manager G.S. Ramchand called it the “most disgraceful and selfish performance” he had seen. India won a solitary match at the World Cup – against East Africa, a team consisting of players from Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, and Tanzania that never made another World Cup appearance.
In 1979, India lost every match, even to Sri Lanka, then an Associate Nation. By then, every side had taken to ODIs – except India. Thus, one can hardly blame David Frith for insisting in the Wisden Cricket Monthly ahead of the 1983 edition that India withdraw from the World Cup.
Roaring '80s
David Frith had not taken a few things into account. India’s 1983 unit was much stronger than their 1975 and 1979 counterparts: bowlers suitable for the English conditions; hard-hitting batters; and a long string of all-rounders. Earlier that year, India had also become the first touring side in nearly five years to win an ODI in the West Indies.
To be fair to Frith, almost no one had predicted India to lift the trophy. But “Kapil’s Devils” won five of their seven matches, including two out of three against the West Indies – who had never lost a World Cup match across the first two editions.
The fairytale triumph triggered an avalanche of ODIs in India. Every tour now featured ODIs prominently, alongside Tests. India also won the seven-nation Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket in 1984/85. However, a more significant change was taking place outside the field.
Miffed at being denied extra passes for the 1983 World Cup final, BCCI president N.K.P. Salve teamed up with the Pakistan and Sri Lankan boards, founded the Asian Cricket Council, moved the World Cup out of England, and acquired a sponsor in Reliance.
The defending champions crashed out in the semifinal of the 1987 World Cup. The heartbreaking defeat was Kapil Dev’s last match as Indian captain and Gavaskar’s last as an international cricketer.
In a quirk of fate, Sachin Tendulkar, one of the ball-kids at the Wankhede Stadium that day, went on to play each of the next six World Cups, eventually winning the last one.
Noone – not only among Indians but in the world – is within 500 runs of Tendulkar’s tally of 2,278 World Cup runs. His six 100s are the joint-most; the 21 50-plus scores are nine clear of anyone else’s tally; and with a 1,000-run cutoff, only A.B. de Villiers beats both Tendulkar’s average (56.95) and strike rate (89).
The 1990s
India had a horror outing in Tendulkar’s maiden World Cup, in 1992, finishing seventh out of nine teams. They won only two matches, but one of them was against eventual champions Pakistan, in the first-ever World Cup clash between the sides.
Yet, over the next couple of years, India won several key boardroom battles. They secured the World Cup rights again, along with Pakistan and Sri Lanka. WorldTel acquired the television rights at an unprecedented $1.4 million.
By the turn of the century, the Indian television audience would become the deciding factor of global cricket economy, only to be magnified by the Indian Premier League (IPL) – but that is another story.
In 1996, India lost the semifinal again, this time to eventual champions Sri Lanka. Tempers flew in the stands at Eden Gardens, and a crowd riot led to premature abandonment of the match.
The 2000s
In 1999, India were knocked out at the Super Sixes. The form spilled over into the 2003 edition, where they lost their first two matches. As mobs vandalized the cricketers’ houses back home, Tendulkar urged them to be patient.
The uproar fizzled out as India then won eight matches on the trot to reach the final, only to be steamrolled by an Australian side that remains one of the strongest teams of all time.
Four years later, in 2007, India hit another low by getting knocked out after three matches. In a way this was comparable to the 1975 campaign: here, too, India beat only Bermuda, who were playing their only World Cup.
The 2010s
The World Cup returned to the subcontinent in 2011: this time, India co-hosted it with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. For the first time, two teams from the subcontinent met in the final. And this time, India prevailed.
Graham Crouch’s photograph of M.S. Dhoni hitting Nuwan Kulasekara into the orbit to provide a remarkable finish must be one of the most-viewed photographs in the entire history of cricket. Less than four months later, Dhoni’s bat was auctioned for £60,000 in London: the winner rounded off the figure to £100,000.
India have since lost at the semifinal stage in 2015 and 2019, to Australia by 95 runs in 2015 and then to New Zealand who won the match by 18 runs in July 2019. There have been cries of them failing “when it mattered the most” – an ill-defined phrase with a fluid definition based on the convenience of the user.
True, India lost both semifinals, but they have lost only one other match across the last two World Cups. Their win-loss ratio of 4.667 (14 wins, three defeats) is the best among all sides, as is the ratio of 1.897 (129 wins, 68 defeats) in all ODIs across the last 10 years.
India will go into the 2023 World Cup as one of the favourites to lift the trophy.
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