Unlikely heroes of the Cricket World Cup

Gary Gilmour, a beer-bellied chain smoker with a rustically arranged rug and a name shared with a notorious American serial killer, was a popular swing-bowling all-rounder who burned brightly if briefly for Ian Chappell’s Australians in the mid-Seventies.

His finest moment came at Leeds in the semi-final of ’75, when under dank and heavy skies he swung it round corners to claim six wickets for 14 as England were bundled out for 93. Extraordinarily, Australia were then reduced to 39-6 before Gilmour joined Dougie Walters. The pair steered Australia to their first final, with Gilmour top-scoring in the match with an unbeaten 28. He then took five more wickets in the final as West Indies edged out Australia to lift the inaugural trophy, but after that high watermark Gilmour fell away, beset by a foot injury and the consequences of what Gideon Haigh described as a “light-hearted attitude to training”. PW

Duncan Fletcher (1983)

• Trent Bridge, Nottingham
• 9th June 1983

In 1983 Duncan Fletcher was a 34-year-old data systems manager, responsible for designing and implementing the Zimbabwean government’s car-registration system. Away from work, he moonlighted as the captain-coach of Zimbabwe’s cricket team.

This was pre-Test status Zimbabwe, a set-up comprised mainly of club cricketers, including a 16-year-old called Graeme Hick, and the South Africa Test veteran, John Traicos. As recent inductees of the International Cricket Council, they were invited to make up the numbers at the 1983 World Cup.

Few expected them to bother the established nations, yet against Australia at Trent Bridge, Fletcher would mastermind the first great upset in World Cup history, carving an unbeaten 69 from Zimbabwe’s 239-6 before marshalling a superb defence of their modest total, taking four wickets himself to restrict Kim Hughes’ men to 226-7.

Two years after that win, Fletcher would leave Zimbabwe with no job, no home and just £2,000 to support his family, to begin a peripatetic coaching career that established him as one of the world’s sharpest cricketing brains, famously masterminding another heist against Australia as England supremo in 2005 and steering India to the 2013 Champions Trophy; astonishingly the last global title they have won. PW

Eddo Brandes (1992)

• Lavington Sports Oval, Albury
• 18th March 1992

The ’92 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand was different. A riot of coloured clothing, white balls, black sightscreens, floodlit dramas, South Africa’s return and a final for the ages beamed around the world. After three tournaments on English soil with finals played at Lord’s every time and one in Asia, this was a glimpse into cricket’s future. Yet for all the freshness of a world tournament unveiling new stars like Tendulkar, Lara, Donald and Inzamam, the group stages still threw up some magical throwbacks.

A barrel-chested chicken farmer by trade, in his spare time Eddo Brandes was also a decidedly sharp fast bowler, and it was his ferocious opening spell against a hitherto rampant England side that ensured Zimbabwe would claim another giant upset to go with Fletcher’s stuffing of Australia nine years earlier. Defending just 134, Brandes trapped Gooch first ball of England’s reply and then returned to pluck out their middle order, finishing with four cheap wickets as Zimbabwe stole a famous victory by nine runs. PW

Chris Harris (1992)

• McLean Park, Napier
• 12th January 1999

New Zealand rewrote the playbook at the ’92 World Cup under Martin Crowe’s innovative captaincy, opening the bowling with off-spinner Dipak Patel – a tactic very rarely seen at the time – and asking Mark Greatbatch to tee-off at the top of the order in a style which would soon become de rigueur. But for all their out-of-the-box thinking, it was the old-fashioned wobblers of Chris Harris which tied the opposition in knots, the all-rounder picking up 16 wickets (only Wasim Akram took more in the tournament) with his subtle changes of pace and crafty cutters, all delivered off the wrong foot from an awkward, ungainly action.

In a four-wicket win over India at Dunedin, Harris bamboozled Tendulkar, Manjrekar and Kapil Dev to collect his third three-for of the competition and his spectacular fielding became a feature of the co-hosts’ march to the semi-finals – his brilliant run out of Javed Miandad in the narrow semi-final defeat to Pakistan (incorrectly judged not out by Steve Bucknor) could well have seen New Zealand through to their first final.

The tournament made Harris a cult hero and he went on to impress at the 1996 and 1999 World Cups, later becoming the first Kiwi to play 250 ODIs. Across his ODI career he would claim 29 caught-and-bowled dismissals, with only Murali taking more in the format’s history. JH

Romesh Kaluwitharana (1996)

• The Gabba, Brisbane
• 11th January 1999

A batting average of 12 isn’t usually sufficient to earn an opener iconic status but Romesh Kaluwitharana’s dash and daring at the ’96 tournament, in combination with his considerably more effective partner Sanath Jayasuriya, was enough to secure his place in World Cup legend.

Employed as a pinch-hitter after fleeting success in the role in the lead-up to the tournament, the keeper registered four single-figure scores from six knocks, made a top score of 33 against Kenya (from just 18 balls), and did it all at a mind-boggling strike rate of 140.

That Sri Lanka went on to stun the cricketing world and lift the trophy rather glossed over the fact that Kalu’s kamikaze hitting generally resulted in a quick demise, his enduring reputation more a reflection of the brave new world he represented than the runs he produced. JH

Lance Klusener (1999)

• The Oval, London
• 22nd May 1999

The 1999 World Cup in England was a peculiar tournament. The hosts were a shambles, dumped out in the group stages. Scotland, led by Gavin Hamilton’s one-man brilliance, were much more fun. The West Indies were tired, India erratic, and both ineffectual. Even the big upset of Bangladesh’s win against Pakistan – just a fourth ODI victory in 83 matches for them – did little to quell the conspiracists.

South Africa and Australia were easily the best teams, and in the vast hulking form of Lance Klusener, ‘Zulu’ to his mates, the Proteas had their trump card. Across a chilly month in early summer, Klusener singlehandedly patented the barrelling finisher role in ODI cricket, smashing 250 runs from 214 balls with five not outs to propel South Africa into a showdown against the Aussies at Edgbaston.

That semi-final has entered cricketing folklore. Australia looked to have the game sewn up before Klusener battered the seamers for 31 from his first 15 balls to bring the scores level. With four balls remaining, he skewed a drive past Damien Fleming and set off for the winning run only to find his partner Allan Donald rooted to the spot. Klusener was almost level with Donald at the non-striker’s end by the time he set off. Adam Gilchrist completed the run out – via a relay throw involving Mark Waugh and Fleming – to secure a tie, and Australia sailed into the final by virtue of their superior net run rate. “I could have maybe been a little more patient," Klusener said in 2018. “But hindsight is a brilliant science.” PW

Andy Bichel (2003)

• St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth
• 2nd March 2003

England have experienced many setbacks in World Cups but surely none so gut-churning as 2003’s defeat at Port Elizabeth. Having decided not to play in Zimbabwe on security grounds, a decision that led to the forfeiture of their match against the co-hosts, Nasser Hussain’s team needed to beat the old enemy to progress to the Super Six stage, and with Australia 135-8 chasing 204, it looked on. But Andy Bichel, enjoying the game of his life, would not be denied.

Having taken career-best figures of 7-20, the veteran Queensland seamer delivered some devastating blows at the death, cantering to an unbeaten 34 from 36 balls before his partner Michael Bevan hit the decisive boundary with two balls remaining to sink England.

It was the tour de force from Bichel’s unexpectedly brilliant World Cup. Generally accustomed to operating in the shadows of his more illustrious teammates, he finished the tournament with a batting average of 117, a bowling average of 12 and a World Cup winners’ medal. JH

Collins Obuya (2003)

• Newlands, Cape Town
• 7th March 2003

Kenya did have form, having stunned West Indies at Pune during their first World Cup appearance in ’96, but a winless campaign in ’99 gave no indication of what was to follow four years later, as the Simbas dispatched Canada, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe during their fairytale run to the semi-finals.

Collins Obuya, a gangly 21-year-old leg-spinner, was their breakout star, ripping out de Silva, Sangakkara and Jayawardene on his way to a maiden five-for against Sri Lanka and collecting 13 wickets across the tournament. A medium-pacer in his youth, Obuya had turned to leg-breaks after watching Mushtaq Ahmed’s devilry at the ’96 World Cup but he came into the tournament as an unknown quantity, earning most of his income from selling tomatoes at his mother’s market in Nairobi.

A few guiding words from the master set him on his way. “In Nairobi I had a chat with Warne and he showed me some tips about how to bowl the flipper and the wrong-un,” said Obuya ahead of Kenya’s semi-final loss to Australia. “I am trying to bowl the flipper. It’s not coming as well as Warne can do it, but I am trying.”

Obuya’s World Cup exploits persuaded Warwickshire to offer him a one-year deal but his form fell away and he later remodelled himself as a specialist batter. Aged 42, he is still going strong for Kenya, top-scoring in this year’s Africa Continental Cup as a hard-hitting opener. JH

Kevin O’Brien (2011)

• M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
• 2nd March 2011

“Every now and again someone wakes up and simply has the best day of their life,” wrote Graeme Swann in his autobiography. “Kevin O’Brien was that guy against us.”

No one gave Ireland a sniff after they were reduced to 111-5 in reply to England’s 327-8, but from that seemingly hopeless situation blossomed a knock for the ages – with the match all but gone, O’Brien, the beefy 26-year-old all-rounder from Dublin, decided to chance his arm.

As the wheels came off for England in the field, he reached his century in just 50 balls, the fastest hundred in the tournament’s history. When O’Brien was finally dismissed for 113 in the 49th over, having scripted the highest successful run-chase in a World Cup, he’d hit 13 fours and six sixes in an innings of unadulterated mayhem. “I remember at one stage looking up and I was 80 off 40 balls and I was like, ‘Where did that come from?’” said O’Brien. “It was pretty surreal.”

Having upset the odds to qualify for the Super Eight stage of the 2007 World Cup – when Kevin’s older brother Niall inspired a famous victory over Pakistan – it was another prize scalp which helped set in motion Ireland’s promotion to Full Member status in 2018. JH

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