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Which was the best world cup ever from a cricketing point of view?


Which was the best ever world cup from point of view of quality of cricket?  

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  1. 1. Which was the best ever world cup from point of view of quality of cricket?



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In my view the most fiercely contested or enthralling world cups were the editions of 1975, 1987 and 1992.They had fluctuations,ebb and flow and twists and turns like a Hollywood epic.They had games which were cliffhangers and had sensational turnabouts like a 360 degree change of plot .The winners or finalists were not the best of all world cups but from start to end there was an element of unpredictability .

 

Of the 3 my final vote went for the 1987 edition,played in India and Pakistan.There were upsets in both the semi-finals and the final and almost half the games were cliff-hangers.Australia's 1 run win over India,Pakistan's 1 wicket win against West Indies,England's  3 wicket win v West Indies ,Australia's 3 run win over New Zealand are such examples of games going write down the wire.,with the plot continuously changing.The winners of such matches snatched victories from the brink of defeat  when it looked as though the opponents only had to complete the final rites.The feature of the tournament was the knitting or revival of Australia from just a bunch of talented individual sinto a champion team and the spirit it blazed from the very start.Above all it beat both the favouries India and Pakistan on their home turf.No world cup had games with as much suspense till the very end.

 

The 1975 world cup was the best one from the point of view of standard of cricket with a great final at Lords, England-Australia semi-final at Leeds and a most enthralling game between West Indies and Pakistan at Edgbaston where Pakistan snatched a 1 wicket defeat after being on the doorstep of a famous win with the Calypsos still 64 runs adrift with only 1 wicket standing.In the leeds semi -final Australia scampered home to a 93 run target after looking down the barrel at 39-6 before a  sensational rally by Gary Gilmour.In the final Clive Lloyd played arguably the best ever world cup innings ever to take West Indies to a staggering total of 293-6.Australia made a most gallant chase falling just 17 runs adrift in the end,after a sensational 41 run last wicket stand between  Lillee and Thomson.No world cup final was ever played in better spirit.,taking cricketing glory to such a height.Thus cricket at it's ultimate spirit.

 

The 1992 world cup had a dramatic turn and twist with the ressurection of Pakistan into the scenario rising like  a phoenix from the Ashes.Some enthralling encounters like Australia -India,South Africa-England etc in league stage and a sensational turnabout in the semi-final with Inzamam ressurecting Pakistan with the help of Miandad after his side looked in the doldrums.Sadly the England-South Africa semi-final was marred by rain and was technically awarded to England,which with 2 overs looked set to be an all-time classic.

 

In 4th place I would choose the 2011 edition although favourites India won.India literally lifted itself out of the depths of despair with a sensational turnabout midway and hard-fought wins.There were also thrillers of India-South Africa,India-England and England-South Africa.

 

My order of merit of most entertaining World cups

1.1987

2.1975

3.1992

4.2011

5.1983

6.1996

7.1999

8.2015

9.1979

10.2007

11.2003

 

Edited by Harsh Thakor
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1975 for me 

The 70's was a great time for a teenager , this new tournament was so exciting , seeing all the world's best together . 

Some really great games added even more excitement to it all . 

The next year I was playing with one of those Pakistani bowlers telling us what it felt like not getting that last West Indies wicket 

Also the added attraction of everyone having a big laugh at Sunil Gavaskar scoring 36 in 60 overs :hysterical:

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1975, because this handsome played that edition.

 

Image result for majid khan

 

He played in 79 as well, but the Universe conspired against him leading to his poor show. Everyone was involved in the saazish: CIA, KGB, MI6, RAW, Mossad, Shah of Iran, Pepsi, Premier Padmini, KFC=BCCI, Baniya, Hugh Hefner, Darth Vader, Zeenat Aman....

Edited by Gollum
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Usually, how the top 3-4 teams play dictates the quality of a tourney

 

Starting with 90s

 

92: NZ played brilliantly and the first appearance of SA was impressive 

96: SL 

99: Aus, SA, Pak, NZ 

03: Aus and Ind

07: Aus (did not follow much as Ind was KO)

11: Ind and SL

15: Aus and NZ

 

Will go with 99, esp. because of Aus-SA rivalry, and how Aus won tons of games after losing to BD (iirc). Pak played some good cricket too. NZ was gritty 

 

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From the world cup's I have seen, below will be my preference:

 

2011 World Cup - Best world cup. Not saying because India won this event but it simply had great viewing as a cricket fan. It was not a batting shoot out like its subsequent edition but had something for everyone - batsman, seamers, spinners etc. Also being the first world cup in the social media era, the hype was enormous. The India-Pakistan semi finals in Mohali was perhaps the biggest cricket match I have ever witnessed.

 

2003 World Cup - It was a treat to watch the best cricket team ever assembled (Australian team) at their peak. We had a poor start against Holland and lost badly next game against Aussies. But the turn around we did from there was remarkable. Sachin's six over thrid man against Akhtar and that pull shot six against Caddick, Nehraji picking 6 wickets are some of the highlights. This world cup also saw perhaps the last time a decent Kenya team. World cup final remains a heart break...when the rain came before our imminent defeat, we all were praying for a wash out, so that next day we can have a new game but alas :dissapointed:

 

1996 Wills world cup - My first world cup as a kid and still cant forget the memories. That loss in semi final still hurts and perhaps the biggest heart break as an Indian fan. With Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana both gone in the very first over, we all were expecting to play the final in Lahore. But it all went downhill from there. De-Silva played a gem of a knock and then crap eden garden pitch started turning square in the 2nd half. This world cup will always be Jayasuriya's world cup and in a way he changed the ODI batting forever. Then there are many other memories like Wasim chickeing out in all important quarter finals, Jadeja's assault on Waqar, Prasad sledging Sohail, Sachin's immaculate form, highest individual score (at that time) by Kirsten, jubilant Chinnaswamy to burning eden gardens, late Benajir bhutto handing over the prize to Ranatunga etc etc. Anyone remembers the opening ceremony when Sushmita Sen appeared on stage from underground? They dug the pitch for that stunt and many blamed poor eden pitch in that tournament due to this.

 

1999 World Cup - We simply didn't had the team to compete. Though Dravid was fantastic the whole tournament, unfortunate passing away of Sachin's father and then his poor form didn't help our cause. That defeat against Zimbabwe where Olonga took 3 wickets in last over was a punching blow. Debashish Mohanty was great for us in that tournament and used the English conditions very well. That Manchester game against Pakistan (when ganguly chickened out :giggle:) and SriLanka match were surely the best memories. That world cup will also be remembered for superb bowling by Geoff Allott (NZ) who went on to be the highest wicket taker, Klusener and Moin Khan's batting, South Africa Choke in the semi final, Pakistan losing (fixing :hmmm:?) against BD, Pakistan bottling in the finals and presentation ceremony at Lords balcony had to cut short because a beer bottle been thrown at Aussies by a Pak fan and it hit Steve Waugh :giggle:

 

2015 World Cup - One of the most boring world cup's. The pitches were batting heaven and bowlers were like bowling machine. It was merely a batting shootout and Teams were scoring 350+ for fun. Safe to say I have no fond memories but if I have to pick few - Sohail Khan fighting with Kohli and Misbah asked him (Sohail) to shut up, AB Devilliers crying after elimination, beating Bangladesh in the quarters and their fans went full crazy after that no ball, start and end of Project Raina, Mohit Sharma's grunts, Dhoni's teary eyes after we lost the semi final, Srinivasan getting booed by crowd during finals prize ceremony. However, the best memory of this world cup will and always remain the 'Mauka Mauka' ad series :laugh1:

 

2007 World Cup - Seriously, what the f-eck was that? A very poor world cup in all accounts starting from tragic death of Bob Woolmer to our early exit in the tournament. It was a forgettable tournament for me and thank god for that inaugural T20 world cup few months later which helped us forgot this debacle.

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3 hours ago, Harsh Thakor said:

In my view the most fiercely contested or enthralling world cups were the editions of 1975, 1987 and 1992.They had fluctuations,ebb and flow and twists and turns like a Hollywood epic.They had games which were cliffhangers and had sensational turnabouts like a 360 degree change of plot .The winners or finalists were not the best of all world cups but from start to end there was an element of unpredictability .

 

Of the 3 my final vote went for the 1987 edition,played in India and Pakistan.There were upsets in both the semi-finals and the final and almost half the games were cliff-hangers.Australia's 1 run win over India,Pakistan's 1 wicket win against West Indies,England's  3 wicket win v West Indies ,Australia's 3 run win over New Zealand are such examples of games going write down the wire.,with the plot continuously changing.The winners of such matches snatched victories from the brink of defeat  when it looked as though the opponents only had to complete the final rites.The feature of the tournament was the knitting or revival of Australia from just a bunch of talented individual sinto a champion team and the spirit it blazed from the very start.Above all it beat both the favouries India and Pakistan on their home turf.No world cup had games with as much suspense till the very end.

 

The 1975 world cup was the best one from the point of view of standard of cricket with a great final at Lords, England-Australia semi-final at Leeds and a most enthralling game between West Indies and Pakistan at Edgbaston where Pakistan snatched a 1 wicket defeat after being on the doorstep of a famous win with the Calypsos still 64 runs adrift with only 1 wicket standing.In the leeds semi -final Australia scampered home to a 93 run target after looking down the barrel at 39-6 before a  sensational rally by Gary Gilmour.In the final Clive Lloyd played arguably the best ever world cup innings ever to take West Indies to a staggering total of 293-6.Australia made a most gallant chase falling just 17 runs adrift in the end,after a sensational 41 run last wicket stand between  Lillee and Thomson.No world cup final was ever played in better spirit.,taking cricketing glory to such a height.Thus cricket at it's ultimate spirit.

 

The 1992 world cup had a dramatic turn and twist with the ressurection of Pakistan into the scenario rising like  a phoenix from the Ashes.Some enthralling encounters like Australia -India,South Africa-England etc in league stage and a sensational turnabout in the semi-final with Inzamam ressurecting Pakistan with the help of Miandad after his side looked in the doldrums.Sadly the England-South Africa semi-final was marred by rain and was technically awarded to England,which with 2 overs looked set to be an all-time classic.

 

In 4th place I would choose the 2011 edition although favourites India won.India literally lifted itself out of the depths of despair with a sensational turnabout midway and hard-fought wins.There were also thrillers of India-South Africa,India-England and England-South Africa.

 

My order of merit of most entertaining World cups

1.1987

2.1975

3.1992

4.2011

5.1983

6.1996

7.1999

8.2015

9.1979

10.2007

11.2003

 

Why does 2003 rank so low? It was among the better World cups..

I started watching cricket in 1996... For me, 2003 and 2011 have been the best..  

 

2007 was probably the worst..  2015 was fairly boring too.

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1 hour ago, zen said:

Usually, how the top 3-4 teams play dictates the quality of a tourney

 

Starting with 90s

 

92: NZ played brilliantly and the first appearance of SA was impressive 

96: SL 

99: Aus, SA, Pak, NZ 

03: Aus and Ind

07: Aus (did not follow much as Ind was KO)

11: Ind and SL

15: Aus and NZ

 

Will go with 99, esp. because of Aus-SA rivalry, and how Aus won tons of games after losing to BD (iirc). Pak played some good cricket too. NZ was gritty 

 

Aus didn't loose to BD in that wc,infact Pak did

Aus lost against NZ and Pak in group stage,the most inspiring thing was there zeal to top the super six stage without having carry over points

Edited by Suhaan
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3 hours ago, Harsh Thakor said:

In my view the most fiercely contested or enthralling world cups were the editions of 1975, 1987 and 1992.They had fluctuations,ebb and flow and twists and turns like a Hollywood epic.They had games which were cliffhangers and had sensational turnabouts like a 360 degree change of plot .The winners or finalists were not the best of all world cups but from start to end there was an element of unpredictability .

 

Of the 3 my final vote went for the 1987 edition,played in India and Pakistan.There were upsets in both the semi-finals and the final and almost half the games were cliff-hangers.Australia's 1 run win over India,Pakistan's 1 wicket win against West Indies,England's  3 wicket win v West Indies ,Australia's 3 run win over New Zealand are such examples of games going write down the wire.,with the plot continuously changing.The winners of such matches snatched victories from the brink of defeat  when it looked as though the opponents only had to complete the final rites.The feature of the tournament was the knitting or revival of Australia from just a bunch of talented individual sinto a champion team and the spirit it blazed from the very start.Above all it beat both the favouries India and Pakistan on their home turf.No world cup had games with as much suspense till the very end.

 

The 1975 world cup was the best one from the point of view of standard of cricket with a great final at Lords, England-Australia semi-final at Leeds and a most enthralling game between West Indies and Pakistan at Edgbaston where Pakistan snatched a 1 wicket defeat after being on the doorstep of a famous win with the Calypsos still 64 runs adrift with only 1 wicket standing.In the leeds semi -final Australia scampered home to a 93 run target after looking down the barrel at 39-6 before a  sensational rally by Gary Gilmour.In the final Clive Lloyd played arguably the best ever world cup innings ever to take West Indies to a staggering total of 293-6.Australia made a most gallant chase falling just 17 runs adrift in the end,after a sensational 41 run last wicket stand between  Lillee and Thomson.No world cup final was ever played in better spirit.,taking cricketing glory to such a height.Thus cricket at it's ultimate spirit.

 

The 1992 world cup had a dramatic turn and twist with the ressurection of Pakistan into the scenario rising like  a phoenix from the Ashes.Some enthralling encounters like Australia -India,South Africa-England etc in league stage and a sensational turnabout in the semi-final with Inzamam ressurecting Pakistan with the help of Miandad after his side looked in the doldrums.Sadly the England-South Africa semi-final was marred by rain and was technically awarded to England,which with 2 overs looked set to be an all-time classic.

 

In 4th place I would choose the 2011 edition although favourites India won.India literally lifted itself out of the depths of despair with a sensational turnabout midway and hard-fought wins.There were also thrillers of India-South Africa,India-England and England-South Africa.

 

My order of merit of most entertaining World cups

1.1987

2.1975

3.1992

4.2011

5.1983

6.1996

7.1999

8.2015

9.1979

10.2007

11.2003

 

Wo sab to thik hai but ye bato GOAT sir Majeed Khan kis kis me sharik huey they..Only those were wcs rest all who cares...

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1987 WC a couple of things are stuck in my memory even though was very young.

 

Here are a few things I remember vaguely 

 

There was an Ind-Pak  day and night exhibition match in colored clothing which India won convincingly just before the WC

 

David Houghton of Zimbabwe single handedly smashing the kiwis

 

Azharuddin taking 3 wickets including a brilliant caught and bowled against Australia

 

Gavaskar-Srikanth partnership where Sunny was absolutely killing it and Chetan Sharma hat trick against kiwis.

 

Sunny being bowled in the semi finals against England. May be @Audiophile or @vvvslaxman or @Tattieboy can correct me but didn’t he do the crouching pose after getting bowled made famous by another fellow Mumbai legend :giggle:. That’s my only memory of the semifinal

 

1992 was the first world cup I followed completely and I still rate 1991-1992 as my real start as a cricket fan.

 

I liked the format then with the colored clothing and white ball. Even though the final was a bumme :(( 

 

1996 was during my 10th board exams so was only allowed to watch for a hour or 2 here and there  :(( saw the entire Ind-Pak qf game though. Totally worth it :two_thumbs_up: 

 

1999 for me despite India’s poor show was the best WC. Lots of memorable moments

 

The semifinal is singlehandedly the greatest game of cricket ever played. Loved the Aus-SA league game as well followed by

 

Lance Kluesner, The Dada-Dravid partnership and total butt kicking of SL , India’s epic collapse against Zimbabwe, Win against Pakistan,Sachin losing his dad and coming back and scoring a 100, Pakistan losing to Bangladesh, the drubbing Pak got in the final, too many great moments. 

 

2003 is my 2nd fav WC.

 

2011 had a feeling India was going to walk through . QF,Semis were tough games and the final meant a lot as a Sachin fan who followed his career throughout. From a result POV my fav wc as I didn’t watch the 1983 one.

 

2015 was meh. 

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2 hours ago, maniac said:

1987 WC a couple of things are stuck in my memory even though was very young.

 

Here are a few things I remember vaguely 

 

There was an Ind-Pak  day and night exhibition match in colored clothing which India won convincingly just before the WC

 

David Houghton of Zimbabwe single handedly smashing the kiwis

 

Azharuddin taking 3 wickets including a brilliant caught and bowled against Australia

 

Gavaskar-Srikanth partnership where Sunny was absolutely killing it and Chetan Sharma hat trick against kiwis.

 

Sunny being bowled in the semi finals against England. May be @Audiophile or @vvvslaxman or @Tattieboy can correct me but didn’t he do the crouching pose after getting bowled made famous by another fellow Mumbai legend :giggle:. That’s my only memory of the semifinal

 

1992 was the first world cup I followed completely and I still rate 1991-1992 as my real start as a cricket fan.

 

I liked the format then with the colored clothing and white ball. Even though the final was a bumme :(( 

 

1996 was during my 10th board exams so was only allowed to watch for a hour or 2 here and there  :(( saw the entire Ind-Pak qf game though. Totally worth it :two_thumbs_up: 

 

1999 for me despite India’s poor show was the best WC. Lots of memorable moments

 

The semifinal is singlehandedly the greatest game of cricket ever played. Loved the Aus-SA league game as well followed by

 

Lance Kluesner, The Dada-Dravid partnership and total butt kicking of SL , India’s epic collapse against Zimbabwe, Win against Pakistan,Sachin losing his dad and coming back and scoring a 100, Pakistan losing to Bangladesh, the drubbing Pak got in the final, too many great moments. 

 

2003 is my 2nd fav WC.

 

2011 had a feeling India was going to walk through . QF,Semis were tough games and the final meant a lot as a Sachin fan who followed his career throughout. From a result POV my fav wc as I didn’t watch the 1983 one.

 

2015 was meh. 

Sunny was bowled by Phil DeFreitas in the semi-final, but I do not remember him doing the squats. Sunny usually just walked away in a hurry after getting out if he was sure he was out. 

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