Captaining the West Indies is very different to captaining any other team. Take for example this ICC men’s Cricket World Cup, England is one country, Australia is one country, India is one country, every team emanates from one country, except one.
The West Indies team comprises individuals from various islands in the West Indies with different cultures and backgrounds. The challenge is to bring those guys under one banner, getting them to think as professionals and to play the sport as professionals.
It was the trust factor which was most important. Once you gained the players’ trust, they would go to war for you. That was my biggest challenge going into that first World Cup in 1975.
You have to realise that a Trinidadian is different from a Guyanese. A Guyanese is different from a Barbadian, who is different from a Jamaican.
I felt that we were in an advantageous position because we had a very young team, with young men coming into first-class cricket. We had to bend the branches while they are young and get the players to think professionally. It was a challenging but exciting time.
We arrived at that first World Cup as outsiders. Some of us had experience of limited-overs cricket from the English county game, but England and Australia were the favourites. They had been playing 60-over cricket for a lot longer than us.
We were still finding our way with everything to prove. The turning point came when we played against Pakistan at Edgbaston. We knew that if we lost, we would be effectively out of the tournament.
We found ourselves needing 64 runs with 14 overs to go and our last pair at the crease. Andy Roberts and Deryck Murray were batting together. I remember my accountant Gordon Andrews coming in and telling me that we were going to win. He gave me a case of pale ale and told me he was certain we’d win it. I thought he must be crazy.
But every over we survived I had a beer. When we won, I was quite inebriated. It was at that point that we realised we could win the competition.
We went on to beat Australia at the Oval then knocked out New Zealand in the semi-final to qualify for the World Cup Final.
It was against the Australians again, and we were three down for not many when I came in. Rohan Kanhai and I went about steadying the ship. There were some hairy moments along the way, I was dropped by Ross Edwards, Kanhai was dropped a couple of times as well. But I got to a hundred and after some late runs from Keith Boyce and Bernard Julien we got to 291 and that proved to be enough.
We had incredible support in those days, it was an incredible day at Lord’s, a tremendous day for cricket and a tremendous day for the West Indies. Our cricket really took off after that. All West Indians, and people who loved cricket, realised that the one-day game was here to stay.
This expert column was first published on the ICC website and have been reproduced with permission
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