BORIS STARLING

GLORIOUS HALFCENTURY THE CRICKET WORLD CUP is 50 not out this year. It’s now a global behemoth which generates more than $2bn in direct and ancillary revenue. Back in 1975, however, the concept was so tentative that it was simply called the Prudential Cup and was effectively Test cricket in miniature. White clothes, red balls, run rates a strange affectation: Sunil Gavaskar batted all 60 overs for only 36 runs in India’s group match against England. Four years later, West Indian captain Clive Lloyd was widely suspected of deliberately dropping the slow-scoring Geoffrey Boycott during the final in order to keep him in. “It’s not true,” Lloyd said later, “but it wouldn’t have been a bad tactic.” At the other end of the scale, his teammate Collis King found a…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2025

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