An Indian victory that changed WI cricket history

"History does not reveal its alternatives," Columbia Broadcasting System's (CBS) news journalist, Eric Sevareid was fond of saying. But that hasn't stopped the speculation. And so, a whole industry - including books, discussion boards and even youtube channels called 'Alternate or Alternative History' - has arisen to try and cater to those willing to indulge in that kind of conjecture. For those not familiar with this topic, the Collins English Dictionary defines Alternative History as "a genre of fiction in which the author speculates on how the course of history might have been altered if a particular historical even had had a different outcome."

What if Germany had won World War II, for example? How different would be the world we now live in? Would The United States have become the superpower that it is today? Would they be speaking German in Russia? It may be that Hitler's ideology was so repugnant that there is no way it could have survived on such a large scale for any length of time. But even so, how much more would he have harmed civilization had he been allowed to prosper for a while longer?

Or, what would life in India be like had Gandhi not been assassinated? What if John Wilkes Booth had missed when he fired at Abraham Lincoln in that theater, rather than shot him dead as he did? What if Ali Bin Nasser had spotted Maradona's 'Hand of God' goal against England in the 1986 FIFA World Cup final? And was there more enchanting music to come from John Lennon when he was murdered by Mark David Chapman outside his New York City apartment?


Forty years ago, at the Queens park Oval in Trinidad, India successfully chased what was then a record total to beat the West Indies in the third Test of their 1975-76 series.

Batting first, the hosts made 359, which featured a huge 177 by Viv Richards. The Antiguan batsman was quickly making a name for himself as one of the game's best, and along with Clive Lloyd (68), seemed the only ones who really came to terms with the Bhagwath Chandrasekhar (6/120) and Bishen Singh Bedi (4/73). India then succumbed to the rapid pace of Michael Holding (6/65), making only 228 in reply. West Indies, in reply, declared at 271/6, asking India to get 402 in a day and a session in order to win.


Cricbuzz

www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/355762.html

World Cup 1983: 25 years on

June 23 2008

It began at Berbice.

zacaroni ,
are you alluding to Lloyd copying the Australia model of Pace , Pace and more Pace  :-\

That Andy Lloyd blow still makes me sick to this day. One of the nastiest I have seen.



That series in '84 was filled with the cast of walking wounded: Greenidge made 214 at Lord's on effectively one leg, Pringle injured his thumb, while Marshall broke his thumb at Headingley and Paul Terry broke his arm at Old Trafford.

dillinger , did Clive Lloyd invent that Pace attack

OR the Austrailans came first : with Jeff Thompson et al .

Whom started it ?

I will have to dig through the scorecards to see for sure, but if I were to go on memory alone, I believe Australia didn't employ an all pace attack in Test matches until the end of the decade, after Lloyd introduced this in '76.

However, I do know for a fact that Len Hutton did go with an all pace attack against Australia in Brisbane 1954 - Tyson, Statham, Bedser and Bailey.

I just went ahead and checked through Bob Massie's six Test appearances. In the series against England, Australia's attack featured the one spinner (either Gleason or Mallett).

In the first of his two Test appearances against Pakistan, Australia featured two spinners - Mallett and O'Keeffe. In his final Test appearance, Australia gave a Test debut to legspinner John Watkins.

I'll keep digging through the scorecards.

Bob Massie , Jeff Hammond , Max Walker , Jeff Thompson.

whaddabout that crazy Gary Gilmour 

Surely there must have been a 4Prong ..... :-\

Yes, sorry, ketch. Australia did indeed field plenty of four prong seam attacks throughout the 70's, but also included one front line spinner in the side, typically one of Ashley Mallett, Jerry O'Keeffe, Jim Higgs or Bruce Yardley.