In this week’s edition of In Search of West Indies Cricket, Roger Seymour looks at the highlights and forgotten moments of the 1975 World Cup Final.
In the 2030s, the following scenario will occur in homes in the Caribbean, the UK and North America. “Grandpa, what’s this?” the speaker will be a curious ten-year-old child of West Indian extract, and the item in question will be a slim clear plastic box measuring approximately 6” x 4”, within which will be an item of hard black plastic, consisting a reel of tape and an empty spool. The label will vary from “1975 World Cup” to “Kings of Cricket” to “West Indies One Day World Champs”.
Grandpa, who will probably be in his late 70s or early 80s, will smile broadly, retrieve the precious family heirloom, look into the eyes of his descendant and answer, “It’s a VHS cassette tape of the highlights of the first ever cricket World Cup held in 1975 and won by the West Indies.”