The 1975 Cricket World Cup was the first World Cup and comprised a number of 60-over matches.
India were in group along with England, East Africa and New Zealand and were to play each of these teams once. To advance to the semi-finals they had to come in the Top 2 of their pool. However, the running was tough and India opened their campaign with a particularly infamous loss. India lost their first match to hosts England by 202 runs after England had scored 334 (4 wickets, 60 overs) in their allotted overs, with help from DL Amiss (137 from 147 balls), and KWR Fletcher (68 from 107 balls), who shared a second-wicket partnership of 176 runs. Any hopes of an Indian win were lost through some extremely controversial batting by Sunil Gavaskar (36 from 174 balls, 1 four), who batted through the 60 overs for 36 not out as India scored 132 (3 wickets, 60 overs). This match was treated as a disgrace in India and the players came under much controversy.
The next match they win an easy 10 wicket win against minnows East Africa (through some more intelligent batting by Sunil Gavaskar (65 from 86 balls, 9 fours) and Farokh Engineer (54 from 93 balls, 7 fours) before bowing out of the tournament in a must-win match against New Zealand. After scoring 230 all out in 60 overs, led by a half-century from Abid Ali (70 from 98 balls, 5 fours, 1 six), Glenn Turner (114 from 177 balls, 13 fours) brought New Zealand home with 4 wickets and 1.1 overs remaining.
The Indian Squad of the 1975 World Cup
- Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan (captain)
- Abid Ali
- Mohinder Amarnath
- Bishan Singh Bedi
- Farokh Engineer (wicketkeeper)
- Anshuman Gaekwad
- Sunil Gavaskar
- Karsan Ghavri
- Madan Lal
- Brijesh Patel
- Eknath Solkar
- Gundappa Viswanath
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