On This Day: Windies win 1979 World Cup
39 years ago, West Indies legend Michael Holding was at the peak of his powers.
At 25 years old, ‘Whispering Death’ already had 57 Test wickets to his name and was putting fear into batsmen all around the globe.
On this day in 1979, he added a Cricket World Cup title to his ever-growing list of achievements.
“It’s almost 40 years ago now, but I can still remember the fun and the joy we had winning that World Cup in 1979,” reminisced Holding, who took two wickets in the Final against England at Lord’s.
The Windies’ cause was helped massively by a fantastic innings from Sir Viv Richards, who hit 11 fours and three sixes in an unbeaten 138 as they scored 286/9.
After that, it was down to Holding and his fearsome bowling crew to do the rest, and they duly delivered. Joel Garner took a five-for and Colin Croft took three to add to Holding’s brace, as they bowled England out for 194 in 51 overs to lift the World Cup.
“When we batted first and got 280-odd runs, in those days that was a lot of runs even in a 60-over game, because there were no fielding restrictions and you could put your fielders wherever. We were fairly confident after getting that first-innings score.”
The West Indies came into the 1979 World Cup as reigning champions and favourites to reclaim their title.
Despite this, Holding said his side were more ‘hopeful’ of making it back-to-back titles, rather than expectant.
“I don’t think we could be confident, I think we were hopeful. We had a good team, we thought we had a good chance, but in a one-day tournament you never can be sure what’s going to be taking place.”
For many young cricketers, the dream is to lift the World Cup. For a few, it becomes a reality. And, while Holding is one of those lucky few to win it, he still failed to lift the famous trophy!
“I don’t think I actually touched it!” he said. “Those days, we didn’t worry too much about touching the trophy or drinking from the trophy, it was all a matter of whether you’d won the tournament and you’d beaten everyone, and that is what we’d done.”
Holding missed the chance to play in the inaugural Men’s Cricket World Cup in 1975, but after seeing the impact it had on his teammates and his fellow West Indians, he was proud to get the chance to replicate their feat four years later.
“After the 1975 World Cup, which I was not part of, I remember the team and how happy they were. It was a joyous occasion for them and they were feeling great that they’d beaten the entire world.
“Once you’ve played at a tournament and you can beat every country that has played in that tournament you can say you’ve beaten the world and that’s a great feeling. So I always wanted to be part of that when it came round again and I was happy to be part of that 1979 team, it was brilliant.”
The moniker of ‘World Cup winner’ is one that still makes Holding smile, although he does have one regret…
“[I’m] very proud of that fact and I’m very proud of the fact that the West Indies won the first two World Cups. We should’ve won the first three, but never mind!”