50 fascinating facts about World Cups - Part 1

Frustrated by India's slow approach in their mammoth chase of 335, a spectator rushed onto the field and pleaded with the Indian batsmen to show some aggression. Sunil Gavaskar, who scored an unbeaten 174-ball 36, later claimed that he thought the target was unachievable and decided to take some match practice.

In the 1975 World Cup final, West Indies opener Roy Fredricks lost balance and kicked the leg stump with his left leg after hooking a Dennis Lillee bouncer. Agonisingly, the ball went for a six over long-leg, but Fredricks became the first player to be out hit-wicket in ODI history.

During the 1979 World Cup final, with no field restrictions, England captain Mike Brearley sent all his fielders deep to protect the boundary. However, Viv Richards, on 132, anticipated a full ball, moved to the off-side and played a stylish flick to send it all the way and took the cricketing world by surprise. Recalling the moment, Richards later said, "That shot is my invention."

When Dean Jones lofted Maninder Singh over mid-off during a 1987 World Cup match in Madras, the umpire, who was unsure if the ball had crossed the boundary, took Ravi Shastri's word and signalled four. However, Jones walked up to umpire Dickie Bird and suggested that it was a six. Dickie then said that the issue would be discussed after Australia's innings. During the innings break, Australian team manager Alan Crompton spoke to the umpires, who then approached India's captain, Kapil Dev. A generous Kapil agreed to change that four to six, which meant India's new target would be 271. Interestingly, India went on to lose the match by 1 run.

Pakistan needed 2 runs to win off the last ball in a 1987 World Cup group match at Lahore. Despite the non-striker backing up too much, Courtney Walsh, who was in charge of the last over, liberally refused to effect a run-out. Eventually, Abdul Qadir hit the winning runs and Pakistan won the match by 1 wicket.

Kepler Wessels became the first player to represent two countries in ODI history. He played for Australia from 1982 to 1985, before representing South Africa in 1991. Despite local outrage, Wessels was controversially named as South Africa's captain for the 1992 World Cup.

Pakistan's World Cup winning captain Imran Khan returned to international cricket in 1988 after announcing his retirement the previous year. It was at the request of the Pakistani President, General Zia-Ul-Haq, that the all-rounder represented the country again. Eventually, his inspirational captaincy gave Pakistan their first World Cup.

Sachin Tendulkar's dismissal in the 1996 World Cup semifinal triggered a tremendous collapse as India slumped from 98/1 to 120/8. An outrageous crowd then went berserk at the Eden Gardens setting fire in the stands and throwing bottles onto the field. This forced the match officials to stop the match and declare Sri Lanka as winners by default.

During South Africa's 1999 World Cup opener against India, captain Hansie Cronje and Allan Donald wore ear pieces to get instructions from their coach Bob Woolmer. India's Sourav Ganguly noticed Cronje talking to himself and referred the case to the on-field umpires, who then asked both Cronje and Donald to remove the equipment after consulting with the match referee. However, the act was not considered to be against the laws of the game.

India's review against Ian Bell in the 2011 World Cup forced the International Cricket Council (ICC) to change the DRS rule. Although Hawk-Eye showed the ball hitting a good part of the stumps, Bell was not given out as he was struck outside 2.5 metres from the stumps. The ICC then changed the rule by saying a batsman can be ruled out, if the Hawk-Eye shows the ball hitting the stumps, by a considerable margin, irrespective of the distance between the point of impact and the stumps.