Indies to the limits and that was an eye opener for them. Next best competition was provided by Australia in the finals, when they lost by 17 runs. Can we quickly summarise this way and close the book. I am thinking, why couldn't a 'Gary Gilmour's 6-14 in semis and 5 wickets in finals' or 'Bowling attack of Lillee, Thompson and Gilmour' or 'Chappell Brothers' end up on winning side. To me, it was the match turning innings of Clive Lloyd. An innings like that could shatter a team's morale so much, even Aussies could not cross the line due to the same. So, Was it Captain's brilliance that won the world cup for West Indies ? No, There was an Individual too, who rose to the occasion with his not-so familiar performance. Yes, I am talking about 3 crucial run outs of Sir Vivian Richards. Chappel Brothers and well settled Opener Turner were shell shocked to find Richards targeting the stumps from various positions on field, making them short of their crease during a run. Clive Lloyd ensured that West Indies were Invincibles for a reason.
gladly allowed Windies towards the podium to lift the trophy. I dont remember any team giving due fight. West Indies projected that they were a team playing to show why they are world leaders. Honestly speaking, World cup win was a smaller purpose of their play. To me, the moment that highlighted their dominance was Vivian Richards smashing the last ball over the square leg boundary in a most peculiar way, one would have imagined, that too in Finals. Till date, I have not seen a better audacious shot in Cricket. Somehow the Dil-scoop, Maurilier-scoop were cuter, not audacious. KP's reverse slog - over extra cover was different. All these were played with a risk of losing one's wicket. But somehow, Sir Vivian Richards' told the world a message. The 1979 world cup victory belong to the Team of Invincibles. Joel Garner was at his peak, along with the the likes of Holding, Roberts and Croft. Greenidge, Haynes, Kalicharan, Collis King with Clive Lloyd and Richards was a dream team and till date, no better team on paper emerged.
levels. Kapil Dev was already well renowned all rounder in world cricket. The moment of 1983 world cup was not the day in which we beat west Indies to lift the trophy. It was the day in which BBC went on strike, not covering India - Zimbabwe encounter. Zimbabwe, playing their first world cup shocked Australians and was on course to do the same against Indians. Our Captain put his hand up and rose to the occassion, smashing 175 off 138 balls, after India were reeling 17-5. Just observe these two numbers (17-5 and 175), to me this sealed the moment of world cup 1983. The amount of confidence the dressing room would have had at the end of this match could not be penned down. Our Captain, through this knock, created a belief that we could come out of any situation, be it any opponent. I feel, the same belief only ensured that we defended 183 total against the mighty Windies. Ofcourse, nobody can deny the pressure behind Kapil Dev's catch to dismiss Sir Vivian Richards. Mohinder's Nagging spell in both semis and finals. Krish Srikanth's fearless batting at the top, Solid batting of Sunil Gavaskar, Yashpal Sharma and Sandeep Patil going hammer and tongs against many fast bowlers - All these happened simultaneously, as they had a person to look upto. All said and done, Captaincy won it for us in 1983. 
were the other teams, who had sailed into the Semi-finals. England would step into the minds of people as Chokers, due to famous reverse-sweep of Mike Gatting, known for wrong reasons. Allan Border built a team, who are young and inexperienced, but he showered all his experience on the youngsters, allowing them to express freely their minds on field. Mcdermott was his trump card with the ball, Marsh and Boon with the bat, Stephen Waugh, one of the best All rounders the world has seen. This World cup was famous for Courtney Walsh's episode, where he did not run out Saleem Jaffer at the most crucial time of the match. But I look back at that moment and feel, "Was it the end of West Indies' dominance ?". Never, Windies lifted themselves up and made their presence thereafter. Or May be not, as some might aptly put, Llyod's era definied West indies dominance and nothing beyond. Both the semi-final and Final, Allan Border was cool under pressure and thats the reason for their success. I would attribute 1987 victory to Captaincy.1992 - One man had an personal agenda, though for a social cause, carried that weight on his entire shoulder and drove 14 other guys to the goal. Imran Khan, charismatic personality such as him could drive the entire nation, given a chance. He wanted to build a cancer institute and 
hence he built a squad which would win him the world cup. Coming to the cricket part, the way Pakistan picked in the later stages of the tournament, momentum was very high till they reached the goal of winning the cup. Imran Khan was spot on with his strategies. Inzamam and Akram was his trump card with bat and ball respectively. Javed Miandad and Imran Khan showered all experience for the youngsters. One of the many factors that was in their favour was, "How this team unite for a common cause, when they are always left with Individual clashes and Pride and Ego with each other" Ofcourse, these were there earlier, but a leader like Imran Khan alone channelised it to a winning cause. Him, batting at No.3, in the final was a killer punch move, where he and Javed laid a platform for Inzy and Akram to smash the ball around the park in last ten overs. They had a good bowling attack to stop England from chasing down the target.
1996 - Captaincy again. Jayasurya was not known to the world in opening slot and Kaluwitharana was a mediocre wicket keeper batsmen. Arjuna pushed these two to the opening slot and asked them to be aggressive against any attack. It all started in the Sri lanka tour of Australia a year prior to 1996 world cup. Kalu and Sana became a deadly opening pair. People were equating them to Greenidge and Haynes' pair. This move allowed the middle order to 
nicely settle in, both on paper and on performance. Even if Kalu and Sana failed, which rarely happened, Asanka Gurusinha and Aravinda De silva were equally aggressive, but with their ground strokes. Arjuna and Tilekaratne finished most of the matches remaining not out. Bowling was really mediocre, but then they were fielding with a purpose. Arjuna Ranatunga was also very aggressive himself. Before the crucial final, he went on record stating that Australian bowling attack dont have any match winning bowlers. Ofcourse, he would have been so confident of his batting unit. But then Aussies till then, were not used to teams playing mindgames with them, especially the teams from the sub continent. Aravinda De Silva, rose to the occassion and played a match winning innings in the final. Its a mix of Captaincy and one Individual rising to the big occassion, which won the world cup for them.
1999, 2003 and 2007 - 'Team of Invincibles' tag fitted Australians. Steve Waugh built the team of Invincibles and handed it to Ricky Ponting and till date Ricky ensured that its in safe hands. Players like Adam Gilchrist, Michael Bevan, Andrew Symonds, Mcgrath, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh, Mathey Hayden, Brett Lee are treasures. Most of these men
have been part of 3 world cup winning team. If we look back all these three world cup finals, it was a Joke. Pakistan got all out for 132 in 1999 - Match over. Australians scored 359 for 2 in 2003 finals against India - Match over. Scored 281 in 38 overs batting first against Sri lanka in 2007 final - Match over. But then, in each of the world cups, there were other teams who pushed Australians to the corners, and it was so easy for Aussies to find a guy who put his hand up and take them to the shore. Bevan did it so many times, Steve Waugh's innings against South Africa in 1999 group match (his only hundred in World cup ODIs). Who would forget the famous statement - "Mate, you just dropped the world cup" - (Steve Waugh to Gibbs). As if to make that statement true, the tied semi final match between Aussie and RSA ensured that Australia sail to the finals. It was the best ODI of all time ever to have played, atleast for me.
2003 world cup, Symonds announced to the world in the first match against Pakistan, why he was backed by Ricky Ponting to be in the Squad. 2007 World cup was Mcgrath's last and he signed off in style. 
His match winning bowling performance against South africa in 2007 semi finals was phenomenal. Australian's fielding was always top notch. Their fast bowlers are all great athletes and fitness freaks. They would save a run as if their life depends on it. Ricky Ponting himself set the bench for others to follow. Aussies bat deep, but then if we look back as to why that happened, credit has to be given to Steve Waugh for making the bowlers in his team believe that they can contribute with the bat too. Likes of Andy Bichel, Lee brothers, Ian Harvey, Mitchell Johnson, Shane Warne have all been groomed in the Test matches to play alongside regular batsmen and still contribute for major partnerships that turn the match to their favour. That spilled-on in the ODIs too. Steve Waugh built a team and made them invincibles, Ricky Ponting maintained the status. Their world cup results was more of all the three factors discussed for this blog.
To Summarise, Captaincy is a major factor for World cup result in team's favour. But then, he should build a team and make them believe that they are invincibles. Automatically, Individuals would rise to the occassion and perform. If we look at 2011 world cup and India's chances, we have a great captain in Dhoni, who built the team for this world cup. I would like to highlight Dhoni's statement when he was appointed captain in 2007. "For 2011 world cup, most of the players in the team should have played on an average 100 ODIs". Ofcourse, Sachin's stats alone would hike the average up. :-) We have Individuals who are potential match winners. We have the Sachin factor. On top of all this, we have Home advantage. Go India Go, all the way to the trophy.
Regards,
Prashy.
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