Following failure in 1975, England assumed the cricket world would be small enough to conquer eventually. They’re still waiting but now have their best chance yet
June 1975. On Monday the 2nd it snowed: a full inch at Buxton, wreaking havoc with Derbyshire v Lancashire; flurries outside my bedroom in Northamptonshire; the odd flake at Lord’s.
By the Thursday the weather had perked up and the people of Britain felt cheery enough to vote Yes to staying in the Common Market. On the Saturday cricket’s first World Cup began. The June sun shone, the crowds poured in and the nation was transfixed until West Indies beat Australia in a gloriously theatrical final at Lord’s a fortnight later. No one knew the old game had so much blood in it.
Related: How it feels to play for England in a Cricket World Cup final
This World Cup has not been a fiasco, like the last English-based one in 1999, but it has not been a triumph either
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