It was 1975 –
Prudential world Cup – the first ever limited Over tournament for men.. Sri
Lanka and East Africa were the new entrants.
Tamil cricket fans know almost all Lankan players well, with frequent
matches of MJ Gopalan trophy but Lankans were new to International arena. In the first match they were shot out by WI
pacers and had a nine-wicket drubbing.
Next was the game against Australians.
Put into bat, Australians piled
on 328 for 5. In reply, Sri Lanka had a flying start, reached 150 for 2 in the 32nd over. They could survive the opening fire of Jeff
Thomson and Dennis Lillee but – the second spell was of a different game
plan.
The
score card would read : Australia 328/5 in 60 overs – Rick McCosker 73 &
Alan Turner 101. Somasundara de Silva
60/2 in 12 overs. Sri Lanka a healthy
276/4 – MH Tissera 52 & Wettimuny 53*; Ian Chappel 2/14 and Jeff Thomson 1/22 .. do
you remember the original tale that unfolded on that day ?
The president of the Green
Island Cricket Club says he's "heartbroken" to confirm the death of
one of its players during a match in Dunedin, New Zealand. Hareesh Gangadharan,
a member of the Second Grade team, was playing at the club's Sunnyvale Sports
Centre ground against an Albion side and died after suffering a medical event
on Saturday.It is understood that he was walking away having completed bowling
an over when he collapsed, about 4pm. The family man had played for the club
for five or six seasons.Some members of the team had medical backgrounds and a
defibrillator kept in the club house was used, but Gangadharan could not be
revived. Gangadharan was understood to be 33 and married with a young child,
Otago Cricket Operations manager Tim O'Sullivan said. He played in a team made
up predominantly of Indian players.
At Canberra
Australia 5 for 534 dec (Burns 180, Travis Head 161, Patterson 114*) and 3 for
196 dec (Khawaja 101*, Head 59*) beat Sri Lanka 215 (Karunaratne 59, Starc
5-54) and 149 (Starc 5-46) by 366 runs.
A rampant Mitchell
Starc devastated the Sri Lanka top order, sending the visitors hurtling to a
fourth-day 366-run defeat at Canberra. Sri Lanka failed to reach a total of 200
for the third time in four innings in Australia; and none of their batsmen were
able to cross fifty. They have now been winless since late October, and have
lost six of the last seven Tests they have played. For Starc, this Test has been
an emphatic return to form, after a tough home summer. He sealed the victory
with his tenth wicket in the match - the second time he has achieved a 10-for,
the other occasion also having been against Sri Lanka. Starc was not quite as
quick on day four as he had been in the first innings, but having already
roughed up a number of Sri Lanka batsmen in this Test, he was no less fearsome.
Lankans would like
to forget this test not only for the result – more for the injuries. Kusal
Perera had to leave the field on Sunday
after he was hit on the helmet, the second Sri Lankan player in two days to
leave with a head injury. Perera was to undergo a mandatory concussion test
after he was unable to continue batting at Canberra's Manuka Oval in the first
session of the third day. Perera was replaced by Dimuth Karunaratne, who had
retired hurt on day two after being hit in the neck by a bouncer. Good that Karunaratne was cleared to return
to the crease, less than 24 hours after being felled by a Pat Cummins
delivery.Play was stopped for almost 15 minutes on Saturday as Karunaratne was
treated on the field before he was put on a stretcher and taken from the field
to Canberra Hospital by ambulance.
In
1976, India toured West Indies under Bishan Singh Bedi. WI won the first test at Bridgetown, by an
innings and 97 runs. The second one at
Port of Spain was drawn and the third one on Apr 1976 was historic. Indians chased 405 in the fourth innings and
won by 6 wickets with Sunil Gavaskar and Vishwanath making centuries, ably
supported by Mohinder Amarnath, Brijesh Patel and Madanlal.
In
that background, the Fourth Test at Kingston – Test no. 776 in Apr 1976 had to
be different. The score card read : India 306/6 decl !! ; WI 391 all out. India 97 all out and West Indies making the
13 runs required without losing a wicket.
Statistics will never reveal the real story.WW Daniel made his debut in
a bloody test, where Indians were intimidated with crowds calling for
blood. No doubt the WI had class
quickies but the strategy was questionable and many batsmen suffered nasty
injuries trying to take evasive action.
The short pitched bowling was over done and Holding from round the
wickets caused most damage to the bodies of Indians. The result could not have been dreamt of from
the first day. At stumps on bad light
curtailed day one Indians were 178/1; Gavaskar bowled Holding for 66; Anshuman
Gaekwad 58* and Mohinder 25* firm at the crease. Gaekwad’s innings was one of raw courage
taking several blows on the body and arms – the gears were not so protective
those days. With the score at 237
Gaekwad was forced to retire bleeding in his ears. At 273 Brijesh Patel retired hit on the
mouth. At 306 Venkatraghavan got
out. Bedi wished to protect himself and
Chandrasekhar from injuries and hence declared at 306/6. In
that test one player after other had to be escorted to
hospital with bleeding injuries.
In
the Second essay, Gavaskar failed to Holding and half of the team was not fit
to play. Mohinder made a gutsy 60. Only Gavaskar, Vengsarkar, Mohinder,
Madanlal, Kirmani and Venkat padded up.
Gaekwad was not in a position to play – so also were Gundappa Vishwanath
and Brijesh Patel. Bedi & Chandra
did not bat for the second time and with 5 batsmen absent hurt – it was
recorded that Indians were all out for 97.
Returning
back to that World Cup match of 1975 – Australia fearing the threat – started
firing the bodies. Sunil Wettimuny would certainly love
forgetting that fear created by Jeff Thomson, arguably the fastest bowler to
draw breath."We had never seen such pace and with the way Thommo seemed to
hide the ball behind his back, you couldn't pick it at all," Wettimuny
would recall decades later. In his opening spell Thomson hit Wettimuny twice in
the inner thigh, and also delivered a cracking blow to the hip bone and a
crunching hit to the ribcage. Mendis played a couple of Thommo's deliveries, after
which the fast man let fly. One flyer hit him squarely on the forehead. He staggered
and fell heavily to the crease and had to be carried off the ground on a stretcher.
Thommo was booed by
the crowd as the Sri Lankan captain, Anura Tennekoon, slowly ambled to the
crease. In one instance after hitting
Wettimuny and with bastman hopping about in pain, Thommo tried to run him out
too.
.. .. .. .. there
have been many injuries on the field and some imposed with fear !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
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