Test Match Special - CWC 4 days to go: 10 moments that shocked the Cricket World Cup
Episode Date: May 26, 2019Eleanor Oldroyd is joined by Jonathan Agnew and Jim Maxwell to look back on the Cricket World Cup’s 10 most shocking moments. From Kevin O’Brien’s incredible innings to help Ireland beat England..., to Big Dwayne Leverock’s brilliant slip catch, Elly, Aggers and Jim take you through those unforgettable moments. Don’t forget, there’s a new episode available every day throughout the tournament, so make sure you subscribe via BBC Sounds or your usual podcast app.
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the Cricket World Cup. This is the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live.
There's a mix-up. Oh, there could be a run-out. There will be a run-out. It's a tie.
Australia is in the final. Here comes Van Bunger, up to Walter Hirschild. It's short.
He goes for it. It's over the boundary. It's six-six is in the over.
And India have caused one of the greatest upsets in the history of all sports.
Australia have emphatically won their fifth World Cup by seven wickets.
Hello, I'm Eleanor Aldroyd. Welcome to the Test Match Special podcast.
It's four days to go until the start of the Cricket World Cup.
Make sure you're subscribed to this pod as you'll get a new episode every day between now and the day after the final.
Today, we want to take the chance to look back on some of the most memorable moments in the tournament's 44-year history.
I've been joined by Jonathan Agnew and Jim Maxwell to look at the ten moments that shot.
the Cricket World Cup.
Klusner hits back past the bowler.
There's a mix-up.
Oh, there could be a run-out.
There will be a run-out.
It's a tie.
Australia is in the final.
Kevoldev going back, catches it.
And that is a remarkable turn of events in this match.
The story broke on the front page of the news of the world today
that Andrew Flintoff was out capsizing a pedolo at 4 o'clock yesterday morning.
The captain has scored the winning run for Sri Lanka,
who have won the World Cup for the first time in their history.
We have decided that we will each wear a black armband
for the duration of the World Cup.
In doing so, we are mourning the death of democracy
in our beloved Slovakia.
Australia has been beaten, Western days have won by 17 runs,
and they are the world champion.
I can tell you that as a lover of this game,
I almost feel disgusted to have to broadcast.
What an absolute joke.
And I've got some really very sad news
that Bob Wilmot has died.
formally stated that Bob had been murdered.
Brez and runs in Bowlesstone.
Brian's massive.
It's a huge one.
Island of one and bats are being thrown in the air.
The island team are running on
one of the most incredible matches
in the history of one day cricket.
Yes, we'll be bringing you triumph, tragedy,
comedy and controversy over the next 90 minutes.
Joining me over a packed hour and a half
for our cricket correspondent, Jonathan Agnew.
And live in Sydney, the ABC's
Jim Maxwell, but we're going to bring you plenty of fantastic memories over the next hour
and a half. And we're going to start with what was one of the greatest one-day matches of all
time. At the 1999 World Cup in England, Australia had already beaten South Africa in a dramatic
group game. But in the semi-final, Alan Donald helped bowl out Australia for just 213. South Africa
looked to be cruising to victory before Shane Warn took four for 29. But it still came down to
the wire. Over to Damien Fleming.
Last over, they need
nine runs to win. I've got the ball
in my hand. We need this one wicket.
You know, things don't get
any bigger than
getting the chance to bowl yourself into a World Cup
final. What pressure, what
pressure on the batsman, what
enormous pressure on the bowler who will be
Damien Fleming. I'd sort of
bowled at the death for Australia since
my third game, which was
Alan Borders last game in South Africa
and I was lucky enough to get us home.
that time back in 94
I'd always bowled the last
over. I remember running in, great feeling
crowds going off
10 team makes someone
come on Flammo I felt proud
ran in, released the ball probably
85 miles an hour and it wasn't
perfect. Fleming in bowls to Klusner
who swings along the ground for
four. Oh that went like a bullet
through extra cover
and South Africa now need just
five from five
Australia need a wicket.
has hit the ball seriously about 500 miles an hour
into the cover fence.
He hit it that hard,
it ricocheted all the way back to me in the middle,
which is a bit embarrassing,
picking the ball up mid-pitch.
And he hit it like a tracer bullet.
But just sensed, heads dropped,
Cluesner's pumped,
he's hit the first ball for four.
Now they only need five runs.
Five balls left.
So same plan, same execution really from Fleming.
85 miles an hour, half,
Wally, Klusner absolutely smashes this one.
Tashes at this.
Threw long off for four more.
Scores a level.
Unbelievable hitting by Klusner.
And South Africa now poised at the brink of an unforgettable victory.
And you can sense everyone's head just dropping.
So I went to, it's funny how you think clear thoughts,
sometimes at your most stressful situations.
and my first thought was I just have to bowl him out now.
I've got to hit the stump.
The man of the World Cup, Lance Klusner,
needs to score one more run to put his country into its first final.
And there are four balls left.
A wicket in hand.
And a wicket would put Australia in the final.
Steve Warr brings in a ring field
because South Africa only need a run.
Four balls to go.
Here it is.
Fleming in and Bowles.
And Klusner, hoax at it, doesn't score a run.
They might be a run.
Run out at the bowlers end, Lehman underarms, he misses.
And I know Alan Donald's out of his crease, but I'm not sure he's going.
The ball goes to Darren Lehman.
He has a go at the stumps from about two metres away.
He misses by a metre, and Donald gets back in his crease.
So near run out, I'm walking back thinking,
both hope that's not our last chance to win the World Cup.
He'd have been out if it hit.
Well, another chance.
Another one goes begging.
So come in for the fourth ball
Three balls left
Really visualising
One run needed
No, I had to knock him over
One wicket to be taken
By a good Yorker
Fleming in and Bowles
He actually gets his bat down on at Cluzner
Clusner hits back past the bowler
Once again he just starts running
But the ball was close enough to my hand
That Donald stays in his crease
They're going for the run out
Ball goes to Mark wore out to mid-off
He underarm stumps misses
There's a mix-up
Oh, there could be a run out.
I get the ball, and I proceed to underarm the ball to poor Adam Gilchrist.
No, it's going to be a runout.
So it was going about a centimetre an hour for poor Gilly,
but eventually got down to his end.
He hits the Stumps.
We've won the semi-final, and we're through to a World Cup final.
There will be a run-out.
It's a tie.
Australia is in the final.
Well, those of us that have seen a lot of cricket all around the world,
have never seen a game finish like that.
Unbelievable.
Well, that was Damien Fleming, recalling those memories of 1999.
Jim, be honest, were you just a tiny bit embarrassed on behalf of Australia?
Well, relieved.
Australia started that tournament by losing its first two matches.
Basically, they had to win almost every game from there on to get to the final,
which they did on the back of some extraordinary cricket from war.
Warn, Warn's bowling in that game was just phenomenal.
And they dropped some catches.
I think rifle dropped two catches.
So at that point, Tim Lane was describing with four balls to go, they were gone, gone.
But I think the fact that Donald had taken off on the penultimate ball and was almost run out,
encouraged the closing to go.
But Donald was sort of ball watching as it came back close to him, and he hadn't moved.
So for South Africa, you know, after dropping Steve War in the previous game,
when, you know, allegedly, Herschel Gibbs dropped the World Cup
when war made that incredible century in a run chase,
they got it all wrong.
So Australia, it looked like being the chokers at one point on that day,
and it ended up being South Africa.
Yeah, is it fair to say they were chokers, Agers?
Do you think? What do you remember of that day?
Oh, I think so.
Well, what do I remember is one of those frustrating days in my career?
Because 1999 was the year that BBC television
lost the rights to live cricket, apart from the World Cup.
and there was no one left to commentate
apart from me for BBC telly it was ridiculous
and I said I'm a radio man and the boss said
no no you're doing telly there's nobody else
so we were doing that game for television highlights
and I remember doing it all
Shane warm bowling brilliantly turning the ball sharply
and everything else and this brilliant game building up
but then I had to go to Pebble Mill
to go and do a radio programme
right on the end and I never saw the end
I could I mean it's ridiculous
absolutely one of the greatest finishes ever
so I never saw it but of course
I've seen it since brilliant comment
from Tim Lane. You know, everything there, and as Jim will know, to detect a runout coming,
to sense it coming, and to call it coming and so on. That's one of the great tricks of radio
commentary. But chokers, that's the tag for South Africa. That was really where people started
talk about South Africa choking. In the previous World Cup, they'd won all their qualifying
games, lost the quarterfinal, the first game that really mattered. Following World Cup,
that big mix-up, of course, over Duckworth Lewis. It's still a tag they've got,
and one they'll be looking to get rid of over the next couple of months.
We will talk more about Australia and about South Africa,
but we're going to talk about one of the most infamous incidents in World Cup history.
England had lost their opening match of the 2007 World Cup to New Zealand.
And a few of the players, including Vice Captain Andrew Flintoff,
went out to drown their sorrows.
I was embarrassed, not just for myself, but, you know, for my teammates.
The knock on it affects it had on my family,
when the press around me, my mother and more, my father, you know,
whether go and wrap me grand or because of like five minutes of stupidity.
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
I'm in the morning.
So the second game for England in the cricket World Cup today against Canada,
but this morning's papers have been full of reports of misbehaviour in the camp.
And one newspaper in particular claiming Andrew Flintoff
was involved in an early morning incident involving a pedalo.
Let's go live to the Beau Seizure Stadium in St. Lucia now.
And our cricket correspondent, Jonathan Agnew, is there.
Good morning, Jonathan.
Good morning, Eleanor. Well, I'm watching England jogging round here, and at moment I can't see Andrew Flintov running around with them, which is all a bit odd. Michael Vaughn had the players together. There's been all sorts of comings and goings and meetings and so on and so on. I understand since this story broke on the front page of the news of the world today, that Andrew Flintov was out capsizing a pedalo at 4 o'clock yesterday morning. And I'm looking at the players running around at the moment. Can't see him in that England group.
You know, I was trying to get on this thing.
These things do get embellished a little bit,
but probably the bare facts work with her,
and after that, it just got carried away.
One inch of water, I understand.
Maybe it's slightly deeper than that,
but I wasn't like 10 miles out to see with a 9-99 rescue job.
Robin Papaya comes in for Freddie Flintop,
and unfortunately has been a breach of team as discipline,
and Robbie makes his World Cup debut.
You've left Andrew Flintoff out,
but the team issued a statement yesterday
saying you disciplined a number of players,
has Andrew been singled out?
We'll talk about it later on as a management group.
We just want to focus on today's game.
That's been the decision.
When I was going through my room,
it was a bit embarrassing because I was checking out the hotel.
I had a machine,
chich, chich, chich, ch, coming up,
and it's like pizza, burger, beer, beer, rum, rum.
And then at the bottom, it had $1,500 pebble.
And I thought that's a bit expensive
for a piece of plastic,
but I wasn't really in a position to quibble.
So I just let it slide.
Sailor, what day did it with a drunken sailor lie in the morning?
Agas, we kind of go from drama to pure farce, don't we really?
It was extraordinary.
Do you remember what it was like getting that news when you were at the Bossejour Stadium in St. Lucia?
It all comes back.
That's the first one.
I've heard it obviously since then.
I mean, what you have to say is that Andrew Flintoff on that night or morning or wherever it was
was probably the first celebrity victim of the camera phone.
Because this, he was rumbled by England supporters, rather disgruntled England supporters.
rather disgruntled England supporters
who'd seen England lose against New Zealand
earlier that day or whatever it was
and they had been down at Rodney Bay
in St Lucia where there's lots of bars and restaurants
and it's a nice place to be
and just around the corner from there
was a team hotel with a bit of a bay
and by all accounts
that was where some of them spotted
or heard this bit of a kerfuffle
realised who it was
and out came their camera phones
very early days of those I think
and nailed him
and it wasn't the preys
that got this story
but it was these disgruntled fans
who'd seen England play badly
in their view
and they had lost to New Zealand
and they weren't very happy
they'd spend a lot of money to go out there
and to watch this tour
and they didn't think this was the right thing to do
so that's why they sent those photographs
and reports off to the news of the world
who of course ran the story
but they were quite serious ramifications
because he was dropped for that match
I think it was Canada that next game
that was what I was reporting from for that match
he didn't play in that game
but I do remember him
and this is on the back of course of the Ashes Tour
2006, 7, 5-0, absolute
drubbing, Flintoff captain.
And there'd be a lot of unhappiness on that.
And they absolutely hang him out to dry
in St Lucia.
That day before, with press conferences
and so on, there was absolutely
no favours done for Flintoff.
I mean, Duncan Fletcher was ruthless.
Put him out and made him do all the press
by himself. He said, you just get on with it.
You've created this mess. And I remember
not feeling sorry for Andrew at all, because
you couldn't really, but usually
these players are protected a bit, but
that day, out you go. And it did have quite a dramatic impact on England. I mean, Michael
Vaughner said it really almost cost them the World Cup because the players didn't dare go out
anymore, didn't relax anymore, couldn't really feel I could do anything anymore. And it changed
the atmosphere very much on that trip. Well, that's fair comment. I don't know, but that's what
was attributed to him at the time. And so, yeah, it was, I think for Flintoff as well, he felt
a bit sheepish. I remember interviewing him on that round. And I thought, how am I going to interview?
He's done so many interviews.
What can I do?
And I simply sat him down, he's opposite to me.
And I said, well, Freddie, what do you been up to?
And he looked at me and said, I've been a very silly boy, I guess.
And that was how he started our interview.
And off he went.
Jim, what was the Australian reaction?
I'd imagine they were laughing their socks off in some ways.
Oh, I think so, yes.
Australia had a pretty strong 2007 World Cup campaign.
That didn't lose a match.
So I think they'd just sort of shrugged their shoulders.
And, you know, as a rule, I think their own supporters look after their players pretty well.
But I think it's the old story.
When you're getting on the wrong end of the argument,
you can end up in places you don't want to be
because someone will take a photo.
And this is the world, the social media and everything else that we live in today.
And maybe if David Warner had been there, it could have been different.
But he wasn't around at the time.
Could it happen today, Agass, do you think?
I mean, I suppose everyone's much more aware, aren't they,
of the dangers of the camera phone and social media and so on.
And quite rightly, I think the camera phone actually has changed an awful lot
about the way that people do behave when they go out
because they know they're one click away from being on YouTube.
So I think that and there is more discipline these days.
But then, you know, part of it was Andrew Flintoff.
You know, what would Andrew Flintoff, the cricketer?
You know, I remember interviewing him on the bus, for goodness sake,
in 2005 when he was in a rather similar condition.
you know, huge celebrations and everything else.
It sort of went with Andrew's territory.
The problem was this was early in the World Cup
and England were trying to start well
and clearly they hadn't on the field
and it was a bad message off it.
I think even Freddie now listening back
and thinking about it would think that probably that was a mistake.
You're listening to 10 moments
that shocked the cricket World Cup Jonathan Agnew
and Jim Maxwell are with me
and for our next moment we're going back to 1983.
Now the West Indies had won
the first two World Cups and were into the final of the third where they were to play India.
His test match special commentator, Prakash Wakanka.
There actually wasn't a great amount of expectation from the Indian team when we set out to play
the 83 World Cup. One day cricket was virtually unknown in India.
Hardly anybody played it. There were a couple of people who played in the English
championship, Bishan Badi, Abidali, but that was about it, Tiger Potodia in the earlier years.
And so, yeah, indeed, there was no expectation. I don't even think that.
people were too keen on following it.
And after that first game at Lords,
where Gaviske got a 30-odd batting 60-overs not out,
I think what interest was there sort of had fizzled out by then.
India got into the final against all expectations,
and that when the final actually began,
it was almost a sense of saying, yeah, we've made it up to there.
There's no way we can beat the West Indies.
And then we got only 183 runs.
Srikanth top scored with a 30-od.
And second or third highest score was actually extra.
20 runs we got in extras.
And by that time, I think most people in India
had sort of said, this is a foregone
conclusion, there's nothing going to happen.
Roberts comes up, Bill's him, and he plays it,
and he caught at mid-wicked in the air,
caught by Garner of Roberts,
and Vinny is out for two,
and India are 130 for seven in the 36 over,
and that was one of the easiest catches
ever to be taken at Lord.
And when Wendy's got to about 50-odd for the loss of just Greenwich,
having been bowled early on by Bolwindar Sandhu,
there was absolutely no interest left in the game, I reckon,
until that magical moment where Madhnalal bowled shot just outside the off-stump
and Viv Richards, the imperious Emperor of Richard's,
just sort of swiveled around and played a pull shot
which 99,000 times out of 100 would have raced away to the boundary.
In comes Madan Lal and Richard swings it high, it could be caught.
Keppeldev going back, catches it!
And that is a remarkable turn of events in this.
This match and the Indian spectators can't control themselves for joy as they run onto the field.
Kapil Dave seemed to have suddenly gone into glide mode.
He sort of just chewed up the grass as he went back over his shoulder
and made that catch which was awfully difficult by any stretch of the imagination.
It was a very good catch.
It swirled out about 40 yards and Kapil Dev running back took a vital catch which has made this match.
Not such a foregone conclusion after all.
And there, it completely turned the game, I thought.
Richard's dismissal just led to the West Indies collapsing.
Lloyd who strikes up, and he's caught.
He's caught by Capald David extra cover.
Ambakus gets a ball outside the off stump, fires out.
He's out.
He's out caught behind.
Amonath jog trots in now to Marshall Beach.
Edgeon, he's out.
Caught at first slip by Gaviscar.
In comes Aminath again.
Oh, he could be LBW.
He's out.
Oh, no.
LBW.
He pulled across the line, holding.
And India have caused one of the greatest upsets in the history of all sport.
They have won the Third Prudential World Cup, beating the hot favorites,
the 4-to-1-on favorites, the West Indies.
I remember the then-board president actually requesting the famous singer Latamangeshkar
to organize a special concert to be able to raise money and pay the Indian cricket team
because the Board of Control for Cricket in India those days
simply didn't have the funds to pay what had been promised.
in the euphoria of the World Cup win.
So it did change cricket completely.
And as they say, the rest is history.
Well, that was TMS commentator Prakash Wakanka,
and great to hear.
Fantastic voices from TMS from the past.
But Jim, you were there.
You were in the commentary box that day.
Just describe that Kappel Dev catch.
Just thinking about it now all these years on.
Well, it was a fine pace of athleticism to grasp it.
But I think the West Indies had a bad attack of hubris that day.
that was the score they should have run down easily
but they played very loosely
and that was the trigger point
that shot off Madden Lahl
and Capel dev
was a superb all round cricketer
the side of that and of him holding up
the trophy at the end of the match
which signalled for all of us
from then on not that we knew
a huge change in the momentum of cricket
because the one day game
from there on has become
established as the currency really for Indian cricket
and it came about out of a remarkable game.
Farouk Engineer was one of the summarisers in the box
and he was jumping up and down all day as these wickets fell
because he got 66 to 1 I think about India winning the World Cup
at the beginning of the tournament.
Not that he was all that confident at the time,
but he certainly was in the box on that day.
Agas, I read Tony Kosier wrote afterwards
that he had to go out somewhere in St John's Wood
and find somewhere to have dinner
because everywhere was full of celebrating Indians
and he ended up at a table next to Farouk Engineer.
Oh, brilliant.
Well, yes.
Well, Frouca had been good entertainment, that's for sure.
But it was just a great result, wasn't it?
Christopher clearly got very carried away, you know,
with one of the greatest upsets in all sport.
Well, certainly in cricket at that time
because the West Indies were all conquering.
You know, they seemed to be unbeatable,
like Joel Garner and Viv Richards, you know,
and these people, they dominated one day cricket.
They dominated everything.
They were just the best in the world by Miles.
that up against the Indians who at the time
you didn't necessarily think were great players of fast bowling
they had Sunil Gavaskar of course on their side
but it just seemed a mismatch
and if it was 66 for one as
Jim said there somehow that seems about right
and so for India
to beat the West Indies
always at their own game at that time
I'm with Jim I mean it did
so much for one day cricket
and for Indian one day cricket
that real appetite that they now have
for one day cricket I think you can probably trace back
to that day in 1983.
Well, let's stay with real triumph from the subcontinent
because Sri Lanka had only ever won four World Cup games
going into the 1996 tournament.
Yet with a new bold attacking approach at the top of the order,
they were ready to shock the world.
Test match specials Russian Abasinga was there.
The Sri Lankan approach in that World Cup was unique
because they were, I think, the team that really invented that wheel
of hitting the, or at least coming over
and he making full use of those first ten overs.
They were very successful in Australia.
They had promoted Ramesh Kalwitarnah, who was a middle-order batchman.
Sanad Jayasurier was a mid-lord, originally a mid-order batchman.
But as a new approach, as something innovative, they came up with an idea.
So they just continued with it, and it was not successful all the time,
but it was good enough for Sri Lanka to try and, you know, create an impression in that workup.
The final was a very emotional moment because lots of Sri Lankans were, you know,
was so, you know, full of expectations.
And I do remember that there was a special charter flight
that was sent to Lahore.
And a few hundred, I would think about four or five hundred people came on that flight.
And when we turned up at the grounds,
it was like a game played in Sri Lanka.
Because the entire Pakistan, the supporters at Lahore at the Gaddavi Stadium,
was all Sri Lanka.
Yeah, the crowd are certainly behind the Sri Lankans here.
We thought it was going to be a 50-50 situation,
but as soon as we got out there for warm-up,
we realised that the crowd were going to go for the Sri Lankans,
probably 90-10 in favour of the Sri Lankans.
The interesting thing is Sri Lanka had stuck to a theory
where they were going with seven batsmen,
and they were also quite willing to chase.
So against everybody's advice,
Arjuna and won the toss and put Australia into bat.
And at one stage, you know,
when we were watching that game,
I thought Australia might get to about 280.
But then Arowind de Silva came on and he got three wickets
and the Sri Lankan spinners just strangled Australia.
He saw that around the wicket bowls to Taylor who sweeps in the air
and he's going to be caught.
He is taken in the deep, a deep backward square leg.
That's a big wicket for Sri Lanka.
I think Mark Taylor was setting his stall out to bat
for the majority of these overs.
He's made 74 and he had his eyes very much
on a big hundred here to see Australia through to a large total.
And then I thought Arvinda de Silva just batted out of his skin.
You know, Sri Lanka lost Jayasuria and Kalutarnar very quickly.
That innings by Araminda was a masterclass.
As Warren, I'm sure, brought on to try to snap him in the bud.
He boils now and DeSilver laces him away past Kabul for another four.
Vaughan tries again, Gouda Singer, on the back foot, pulls again over Midoff.
That's a good hit.
Where's that going? Six.
Oh, it's way over.
That's a big six.
A marvelous innings by Arirvinda DeSilver.
ever closer to the World Cup.
The way he batted, it was pretty obvious Sri Lanka was going to win.
It was a big moment, massive moment.
One more run for Sri Lanka to win the World Cup.
Here's McGraw now.
He bowls the run at Sung of the captain, and nibbles out away through third man.
He grabs a stump.
The captain has scored the winning run for Sri Lanka
who have won the World Cup for the first time in their history.
When you consider the fact that countries like England and New Zealand
haven't still won, South Africa haven't won a World Cup.
So to be up there with a few teams that I want to work up,
it's a huge achievement.
All the Sri Lankan team are out there now embracing their captain,
and Aravinda de Silva, who has finished on 107 not out.
Thunder flashes going off around the ground, the band striking up, the wonderful scenes.
Those were the days where we had plenty of bomb blasts.
We had, you know, reversals in the war, in the warfront.
Lots of soldiers used to die and, you know, lots of innocent people who used to be, you know,
they get caught up.
And cricketing wins always, sometimes, you know, made people forget those
and just look forward to at least a sporting victory.
You know, at a time when Sri Lanka was going through a very, very difficult and an unfortunate war.
Thankfully, Sri Lanka is out of it now.
But so cricket united a lot of factions.
Cricket united a lot of races, you know, the Muslims, the Singhalese, the Tamils, the Burgers.
In fact, I've heard that even the Tamil tigers used to watch a cricket, you know, in the north.
So that win and cricket in general.
has united this country
and I must say that the sport,
the cricket, is just second to a religion in this country.
Well, that was Test Match Special's Roshan Abbasinger
with memories of 1996.
Jim, you were there for that final.
What do you remember?
There's something about that final
that needs to be remembered.
There was the first time they'd ever played
a day-night, one-day game in Lahore.
And that meant there was going to be a lot of dew on the ground.
And the Sri Lankans had practiced at night the previous day.
They knew exactly what it was going to be like.
That's why they said.
Australia into bat and that really did compromise the contest in some ways because the ball became
a piece of soap. Australia didn't bat well they didn't make enough runs really but out of
into the silver's task and it was a superb innings was made a lot easier facing a ball that
worn and the rest of them couldn't hold on to and in fact Australia had been lucky to get through
a quarterfinal and then the semi-final against the West Indies they should really have lost that
but for the brilliance of worn and war so they did well to get to the final
and Sri Lanka, I remember when they won, you could not fit any more officials on the stage.
I've never seen so many officials wanting to get into the mugshot as it were in front of television
and have their hands on the cup.
So it was a thrilling win for them, but it was an extraordinary situation.
And, Agas, it really did change the way one day cricket was played.
Well, Jarsaria Kaluit Arana, the opening batsman, to be feared.
Although, funnily enough, they didn't feature in the final necessarily, in nine and six.
I was just looking back through my...
I've had quite a good fun with my notebooks today
when you do try and jog memories.
In the semi-final, which of course was rioted off in Calcutta,
a game that I was covering.
Actually, they were one for two, Sri Lanka,
with Jaya and Kaluatara and are both out.
So in the games that really mattered, actually,
they didn't feature, but the Jarsarajah scored a brilliant 82 against England
in the quarterfinal of 40 balls.
And that was more it.
I mean, that changed.
That change.
It was pinch-hitting.
It was the first time, really, that expression had been used.
in cricket, where these bats were just teeing off from the start.
And those two were the first exponents of it, really, and they were devastating.
Available every day during the Cricket World Cup.
This is the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live.
We've had tales of great batting feats against the odds, last over triumphs and shock wins.
But nothing compared to what's almost certainly the Cricket World Cup's most shocking moment.
On the 17th of March 2007, Bob Woolmer's Pakistan were playing Mino
Ireland. The result may have surprised many, but nothing would compare to what was to happen
afterwards. Alison Mitchell takes up the story. After defeat in the opening game to host's
West Indies, Pakistan knew that a loss to Ireland in Jamaica would knock them out of the
tournament at the earliest opportunity. Batting first, Pakistan were bowled out for just 132.
Despite a few scares, Ireland held on for what was, at that point, the most famous win in
their history on St Patrick's Day.
clears the boundary.
It's going to be a six,
and the Irish fans are celebrating.
There was immediately speculation
about the future of the Pakistan coach, Bob Walmer.
He gave little away in the post-match press conference,
but when I spoke to him separately,
one-to-one around the back of the media centre afterwards,
he gave the strongest indication yet of his intentions.
I'll sleep on my future.
I have said that I'm reluctant to continue
in international cricket, purely from the travelling and so on and so forth,
but I will stick in coaching at a different level really
but I think the decision's probably been made for me.
Made for you in that you think that you might be leaving before your contract runs out?
Well, no, I mean I'll talk to the PCB and what they want me to do.
I mean, if they want me to go and I'll go, if they want me to stay, I'll stay.
As far as I'm concerned, as I said, I want to sleep on what I'll do
and what I want to do in the future in terms of cricket.
I don't think just because I've lost this game, I'm any different as a cricket coach,
Yeah, it does rather, it sounds a little bit as if you've almost made up your mind without sleeping on,
that you have been pondering these things for a little while.
I have made up my mind, yes, but let me sleep on it first.
I recall Walmer being red-faced whilst talking, but that wasn't altogether unusual.
He was quite calm when speaking and seemed no more stressed than one would have expected,
given the enormity of the defeat.
Anger at the loss, though, grew overnight.
Effigies of Wilma and his captain Inzamamal,
were being burned back in Pakistan.
While the island team returned to their hotel in Ocho Rios
to start the most almighty of St Patrick's Day parties,
Woolmer went to his room in the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston
and sure of what lay ahead of him in the game.
Details on this are rather sketchy.
All we have been told at the moment is that Bob Warmer was found unconscious
in his hotel room and taken to hospital.
We don't know whether that was...
And I've got some really very sad news that I suspect
some people might have expected us to deliver.
That is that Bob Wilmer has died.
Woolmer had been discovered unconscious in his hotel room by the cleaning staff.
Team media manager, PJ Mear, was one of the first on the scene.
When I reached his room, I saw him.
He was lying all laid out on the floor with his mouth wide open.
There was blood in the bathroom, and there was a vomit all over the wall,
and there was signs of diarrhea.
So obviously, something has happened,
which obviously we don't know at this moment in time
because there'll be a coroner's report and autopsy.
But there was blood on the walls in the bathroom.
Yeah, blood on the floor.
Blood on the floor.
The scenes were highly upsetting for the players
who were stunned by the loss of their coach.
Mushhtak Ahmed was part of Wilma's coaching staff.
The guys are still crying.
They're still to sit together and talk about it.
And once you talk about him, you know, like everybody,
every single of them get emotional and they couldn't stop crying about Tobol.
I have no words to explain my feelings, you know, like how good man he was.
The Jamaican Prime Minister arrived at the hotel that evening
and there was a media scrum as she publicly headed to a conference room
to meet with and offer condolences to the Pakistan team.
In a bizarre set of circumstances, Captain Inzamamal Haq
then held a press conference shortly afterwards
to announce his retirement from one-day international cricket.
Pakistan still had one more World Cup match to play before flying home.
against Zimbabwe.
Walmer's body also had to undergo the post-mortem.
The police here, the Jamaican police, and they're not ruling anything out,
they were asked about whether the facts that the autopsy was inconclusive
meant that certain causes of death, such as a heart attack, could be ruled out.
The answer was that they are not ruling anything out at this stage.
All they could tell us was that the test had been inconclusive.
But as time went on, rumour and innuendo began to grow.
The Jamaican police, led by Deputy Commissioner,
Mark Shields got more involved.
There is now sufficient information to continue a full investigation
into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Woolmer,
which we are now treating as suspicious.
Once the investigation was underway, rumours swirled.
There were allegations that the two defeats had been fixed
and that Woolmer was about to lift the lid on a corruption scam.
He certainly had a history of speaking out against it in the past.
Amid all this, the Zimbabwe game went ahead.
with whispers about whether any of the players could have been involved in the possible murder of their own coach.
I've never seen anything quite like it.
In Zamammu'll hack is a colossus in the game to see him break down in tears the way he did.
As he left the field, the Zimbabwe players started to flock around him,
and then the next thing, the entire Pakistan squad were on that outfield forming a guard of honour.
No sooner had the Pakistan players left the pitch,
then they were being questioned by police, investigating the death.
of their coach.
It was always agreed that we'd interview them after the game.
They've all cooperated and they've all provided us with statements.
And they've been fingerprinted.
Yes.
The pathologist report came back stating that Wilma had died due to a spixia
as a result of manual strangulation and had a broken bone in his neck.
We formally stated that Bob had been murdered.
There are lots of rumours going around the world at the moment.
No key entry was shown to Wilma's room, suggesting that he may have let someone in,
dressed only in his towel, and that the killer might have been known to Wilma.
It only served to heighten speculation around the Pakistan team.
Well, Ellie, the Pakistan team bus that was due to take the team to the airport to fly to Montego Bay
has just left the hotel empty.
No people whatsoever on that bus.
What we do know is the team are still here in New Kingston in the hotel being fingerprinted.
Speculation and innuendo was rife.
Questions were being asked of everyone.
Eventually, the Pakistan team was given permission to leave the capital Kingston, but not the country.
They travelled to a resort hotel in Montego Bay and I went to.
Well, it is a much more relaxed sort of atmosphere hidden than in the Pegasus,
but there is, however, a room in the same corridor that the team, the players are staying,
that I understand is being used as a police base.
The players were allowed to go back to Pakistan, but questions were still being asked,
particularly when the police said that the killer was likely to be a foreigner.
It's an unusual modus operandi in Jamaica.
If it was a local crime, invariably people either stabbed or they're shot,
it is unusual for it to be strangulation, asphyxiation.
But the trail went cold.
Various theories were espoused.
Nothing ever proved.
Three months later, a humiliating climb down from the police
as they claimed new evidence had emerged,
which proved that Wilma had died of natural causes
and that three separate pathologists
had concluded that he was not strangled,
contrary to the original report.
Here's Mark Shields again.
We have to go with what we have.
We're given a professional opinion
and to have avoided that opinion
or to dismiss it at an early stage,
frankly, it would have been suicide as far as we're concerned.
We have to go with what we've got.
There were circumstances within that room
which suggested that,
Sir Shyam may have been right, but on the other hand he may have been wrong,
but it was through the course of the investigation that we took that view to go elsewhere.
Seven months after his death, the jury at an inquest failed to deliver a conclusion
as to how Walmer died, returning an open verdict.
Eight years on, there remain many unanswered questions about the death of Bob Walmer.
The idea that a cricket coach was strangled by someone close,
close to him, just hours after his team's humiliating exit from a World Cup,
made headlines around the world.
Despite the police's conclusion, there are still some who believe in foul play.
One of the few certain facts around that night is that World Cricket lost a talented and affable coach
and a respected family man.
Well, that was Alison Mitchell reporting, and she, of course, reported on that story at the time back in 2007.
Jonathan, just listening back.
to it. It was a shocking and
disturbing and upsetting time for so many
people, isn't it? Everybody. I mean, Bob
Wilmer was just one of the most loved men in
cricket. We all knew him.
And this just
seemed to get worse and worse and
just more and more of a tangle with the
tragedy, of course, of him dying. And all of this
conspiracy theories
that just suddenly started to grow as a
result. I remember
we were
filming the television sort of preview
show. Again, we're
in St. Lucia. And Ed Joyce was our guest to do this with. England's match coming up the next
day, I think, if I can remember rightly. It was the only one that we'd recorded in advance. Ed
Joyce was there. We recorded the program. Just as we finished, and Manish was presenting it,
my phone went and it was Allie. And she said, Agassiz just announced that Bob Will was being murdered.
And I remember getting on the phone to London, to the BBC, and saying, there is,
no way we can put out this program in an hour's time.
It was sort of rope swinging on this pirate ship.
You know, England swinging into the quarterfinals.
That was the gist of this.
And they were great negotiations.
I said, I'm sorry, you just cannot do it.
This is absurd.
And finally, the decision was taken.
And, of course, so we did it live, just mere menesia sort of cut to night sky.
And it was just awful, this sort of whole disbelief of the whole thing
that Bob should die anyway
but then that they should announce
that he had been murdered
it was it was it just seemed
it seemed incredulous
and in some ways it got even more
I mean journalists
I remember were shouting out
where they were in Jamaica were shouting to Inzmar
Mulhack as he walked past did you murder
Bob Wilma as Inzman walked past
I was told by someone
a Jamaican who had very good contacts
in Jamaican police
that the plan was as Ali described
this flight would go from Kingston with the players on it. It would stop in Montego Bay,
where two of the players would be arrested, and the flight would then continue. And he was doing it
and just sort of tipping me the wink. He had good contacts within Jamaican police. He said,
and in this workbook to my left, I'm not going to read it, but it's a 40-second report
that I prepared for that moment. That's how crazy it went with all these conspiracies. But it was,
It was just, it cast such a desperate pull over it all, because Bob loved cricket.
And I'll say everybody who'd come across Bob, and we all had,
had a huge respect and affection for him.
And as Ali said in that report, there are still people with conspiracy theories,
there are still rumours that swirl around.
But he was not a particularly fit and healthy man, was he?
No, he wasn't.
I mean, he would be the first.
He was a bit overweight.
But it was Scotland Yard who did the review.
I remember interviewing Sir Ian Blair, who was,
the head of Scotland Yard at that time
when they did this review and he came up,
he's a big cricket fan, he came up to
do Test Match Special at lunchtime, a view from the boundary
and I said to him, look,
you just conducted this review about
Bob Bulma, what's this thing?
He said, oh no, it was natural causes, he said.
Now, it was a bit frustrating as a journalist
I couldn't run that because there's BBC as you know
you need two sources. He told me off the record
and I wouldn't get another one, but it was
about a week later that appeared on the front page of the Daily
Mail confirming that.
That's what the family have accepted.
Jonathan Agnew and Jim Maxwell are with me.
We're recalling the ten moments that shocked the cricket World Cup.
And from one of the darkest days in the World Cup's history
to one of the greatest days, the first ever World Cup,
the final was played at Lords in 1975.
Anyhow, here's Hilda, coming up to Bill to Thompson.
Bowles this one.
And Thompson has a wild hit at that one,
and Murray throws the dump.
He's out, he is out.
Murray threw the ball.
down and think and Australia have been beaten. West Indies have won. West Indies have won by 17
runs. I think if my mathematics are correct. 17 runs and they are the world champion. What do you
see is the future of the World Cup? Do you think it must have a future after this? Well I would
think so because it had been a tremendous really venture by the Prudential. It has paid off
handsomely for everyone and I'm hoping that it would continue. I'm sure that all. I'm sure that all
all the countries that took part have enjoyed this day
and they've learned something from this competition.
And I hope that this is not the last World Cup.
Well, that was Clive Lloyd, who lifted the World Cup for the West Indies
at Lords presented by the Duke of Edinburgh.
Jim, what are your memories of that tournament?
It was groundbreaking, wasn't it?
Yes, it certainly was.
It finished just before 5 o'clock in the morning here in Australia.
A whole cricket team of us stayed up right through.
It was so exciting.
to watch it. I mean, you know, live sporting events from overseas back in those days,
we were still in black and white television, I think, around that point.
I may have just switched over. Anyway, it was huge. And funnily enough, I've been with Clive yesterday
for over an hour. So there was a lot of reminiscent going on about the World Cup and
whether or not the West Indies could somehow come back to that level of skill and quality
and confidence in the game they're playing. But
his batting, that massive whack off Max Walker into the tavern
and the Viv Richards runouts.
They live long in the memory.
It was a dazzling game when Tomo there at the end with Lily
trying to steal the game, which came down to, I think, 17 runs.
So it was very, very exciting.
There was no prize money, as I recall.
They didn't get much out of it, but they certainly created something
that is turned into one of the big cash cows for the ICC
and a massive festival.
Yeah, and Agas, you and I,
we were both young whippersnappers
at that time, weren't we?
But it was an experiment that worked.
Oh, of course.
Clive Lloyd's figured you got 102 from 85 balls.
I mean, people would be wowing about that today,
wouldn't they?
This is the beginning.
And it's revolutionised cricket.
Dear old, John has got excited.
He threw the ball down the thing.
He went down the pitch.
He got a bit carried away, didn't they?
But there's wonderful.
The athleticism of the West Indies
was born out really through,
Viv's amazing runouts.
You know, it didn't really work very hard at runouts in those days either,
but he was just sort of brilliant athlete there.
It was prowling in the covers and direct hits, the two chapels.
Alan Turner, there you are, the prize of someone who might have mentioned,
who might have got that one right as being his first.
But, no, it was a brilliant start, a brilliant opener for one-day cricket.
And the good guys won.
It was played in a different way, though, in lots of ways, Jim, wasn't it?
Because as Ag has said, that Clive Lloyd-Centure,
was, you know, it's pretty dazzling,
but a lot of people just kind of plodded along a bit, didn't they?
It was 60 overs aside in those days as well.
It was, yes.
It was all about having wickets in hand at the end.
So the opening partnerships were boring, really.
You know, they might have 60 or 70 off the first 20 over sometimes.
And it was sort of always considered that, you know,
you'd have a lash in the last 25 overs.
Sunil Gaviske's in, Jim.
Is that the first game?
He's got 36 of 170-odd balls.
He just blocked it.
Yeah, you get fine for that today, wouldn't you?
But, yes, it was completely different concept.
It really hadn't worked out tactics.
And they didn't have the limitation on field placings and power plays
and all the other things that have become part of the game.
And, you know, the way you bowl at the death, all these developments were yet to come.
But it was a spectacular.
occasion and the whole
event went over extraordinarily
well and it was
a wonderful thing for the game. I think that
the West Indies won in the way that
they did because that made
everyone realise that there was a place for this kind
of cricket. Two great memories. Do you remember Roy
Fredericks? Hooking Lily
and stepping on his stumps
he's smacked, I think he went for six didn't it?
But he still on his stumps.
Although he's certainly out-hit wicked.
I remember that. And again, it was for
childish memories really, but what I think I do remember
with the crowd pouring on
afterwards. Do you remember that way? In lords,
everyone was sitting on the grass, lovely sunny day.
Just outside the boundary ropes. Yeah, people
dashing on in their thousands, you know.
No security issues.
No, no many stewards to be seen.
But it was just such a celebration.
Well, the World Cup had moved on by
1992, and it was quite an experimental
one that year. It was the first to
feature coloured clothing, white balls
and floodlights. It was also the
first rollout of a method of deciding
how to revise a score in rain-affected matches.
Now, the system was devised with the help of Richie Benno,
but it faced its sternest test in the semi-final
between England and South Africa.
Your commentators are Peter Roebuck and Neville Oliver.
22 runs required of 13 deliveries.
Macmillan...
I think they have. I think they've reduced it over.
I can't believe that.
Oh, that is disgraceful.
That's monstrous.
Well...
That is disgraceful.
They've reduced... They've knocked an overoff.
I think I just heard that announcement.
Seven balls.
to get 22 runs. Well, that's diabolical. That could cause, that could cause, that's
disgraceful. That's caused the storm in the crowd. The board now showing us they need 22 runs
off seven deliveries. I think that is a disgrace. Well, something's gone horribly wrong here.
I don't think anybody would like to see this game won or lost in this manner. The
bales are being reset and we're about to get on with the game and I think what you'll find is that
South Africa have got the impossible task I think of scoring 22 runs off seven deliveries.
It's a lot of nonsense, isn't it?
Oh, it is an absolute.
Speaking as an English one, it's a load of nonsense.
A lot of coblers.
Well, the umpires are still involved in discussions.
We still haven't had a start to play.
Umpire Aldridge is talking to Graham Gooch now.
And now we've got one ball to be bowled.
Well.
I can tell you, I can tell you that it's a lover of this game.
I almost feel, I almost feel disgusted to have to broadcast it.
What an absolute joke.
This is a fast.
That is a joke
He might as well bolted underarm
People are throwing bottles on the field
They're quite right too
I'm afraid
This time I don't blame them
Oh that is a disgrace
That is a disgrace
The umpires have stood around
Well that makes a farce of the World Cup
I really believe that
That is a joke
Look at the refuse coming out into the ground
Here comes the last delivery
Lewis walks in at half ratpower
And it's just pushed away gently out towards midwark
And a run will be scored
And the game's over
well you couldn't imagine a worse ending than that
what a disgraceful way for this match to finish
England had a chance to stay out there and didn't stay out there
and then everyone was defeated by this idiotic rule
which has been defended in some quarters
but I would have thought by a dwindling number of people
well dear o me if I broadcast this great game
for many years to come I don't think I'll ever see
a bigger anti-climax than that
well that was Neville Oliver and the late Peter Roebuck
they were not holding back aggers
on that, were they?
Oh, it was awful.
I'm just trying to remember.
Jim might remember the actual equation,
but basically, if you remember,
in those days of one-day cricket,
it had been the way that actually the team chasing
in a rain-infected match had a huge advantage.
It was simply a question of the run rate
that the team scoring first had scored
and the team batting second
could knock that off with all their wickets in hand.
You had a huge advantage batting second.
This was an attempt to try and reverse that a little bit,
but it went far too far.
and basically I think it sort of took the lowest scoring overs or something of the team batting first
and added them up and that was how this target would be I mean we had an example of this
actually earlier in that tournament England played Pakistan Adelaide
and England bowled them out for 74 in 40 overs and everyone thought this will be an easy knockoff
and so on when they came back to it rained and it was all reduced and so on
this will be easy, but England's target then became 64 from 16 overs.
I mean, completely transformed the game.
I mean, Duckworth Lewis, having bowled the first team out for 74 from 40 overs,
you'd have had a tiny target, but suddenly they were set 64 from 16.
It actually rained again, so the game was never finished.
But that was a bit of an alert, for those who's seen that game,
hang on, this is not good.
But that finale was, it was, you left there feeling absolutely empty.
Cheated in every way, really.
Well, you did.
I mean, I think watching it,
live. If I'm honest, you felt that England were probably going to win it. I mean, South
Africa needed 22 off 13 balls. And you could have more men out in those days. And I think the
feeling with those of us there was that probably England, probably England would win it.
But by no means, guaranteed. And one good over, a couple of good blows. And of course,
South Africa were right back again. And with Johnty and Willen think it was there at the time.
You know, they could, they were perfectly capable of doing that. But it was a horrible, horrible way to finish.
And Pakistan went on to win that world.
Cup, Jim. And that was amazing as well. And I know that people, you know, current Pakistan
players have talked about the massive influence that Imran Khan and what he did had on the whole
generation that followed. Just back on it, before we get to that, it's important to remember
one thing about that game. It was a farce at the end. But it was of South Africa's making
because they only bowed 45 overs in the time a lot of it. They slowed it down, didn't they?
Yeah, they did. So they got what they asked for in a way.
unhappy and as farcical as the conclusion was
and it was the birth of Duckworth Lewis but
yes England got into the final they had a bit of an
ageing side they had to go through that extraordinary
embarrassment of Jerry Connolly impersonating the queen
at the function before the final
they all walked out they both them and Gitch walked out
I was actually I was in a karaoke bar I could tell you this now
because it's years ago I was in a karaoke bar
in Melbourne. This is the night before the World Cup final.
The players were at this dinner, very posh do.
I'd just finish singing Old Man River
with John Woodcock, probably
the oldest cricket writer still alive, and Mark
Austin, of course, who now reads the news
on ITV, he'll be on soon.
We just finished Old Man River.
And there were no mobile phones in those days, and
somehow word got through that England had stormed
out of this dinner. I mean, it all, we'd all had a couple.
I mean, we were trying to file
copy into telephone boxes.
I mean, it was an extraordinary story, wasn't it?
John Woodcock doing karaoke.
I love that image.
Anyway, Jim, I asked you about Pakistan
and Imran Khan, you know, the impact that that win had on that country.
Well, he was the galvanising influence on the side.
They coerced him back to lead the side for the World Cup.
And then he just scrambled in.
As Agas mentioned, that game in Adelaide was crucial.
I think Australia missed out by a point in getting to the semi-final.
And Inzimamal Haq played that extraordinary innings.
at Eden Park to get Pakistan into the final.
And then around a drop catch that was crucial with me and Dad
and Imban Khan batting so well Jabbed me and Dad.
I think Gucci put one down.
There are a couple of LBs that may have gone the other way from Pringle, as I recall.
He still goes on about it now, Jabber B and Dad.
He's probably right.
I think Pringle probably did have an LBW actually.
Yeah, I think he had him plum.
So, yeah, there was still.
Steve Buckner, I think. But at any rate, it was a remarkable occasion because there were
87,000 people at the MCG. It was a fabulous atmosphere. And Imran Khan created with their side
that had been cobbled together and had Wazi Makram as the deadly bowler. They bowled more
wides and no balls than any team in the World Cup. But they got people out, had great
strike bowling. And Wazi Makram was outstanding in the final defending.
a score. So memorable, memorable.
The TMS podcast at the Cricket World Cup.
Now, the 2003 World Cup was to be held in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
It was a tournament dominated by politics.
No more so than when two Zimbabwean players, Andy Flower and Henry are longer,
one white, one black, made a stand.
Both players wore a black armband, mourning what they said was the death of democracy
in Zimbabwe.
They accompanied it with a statement released to the press.
They are familiar words.
I have a copy framed in my house.
Just occasionally, if I've come across it,
I have read through the entire statement again.
I love the way it was written.
And I think the meaning in some of those sentences
is very sad because it's a remind of what was happening in that country at the time.
And some of the people that went through agony
or lost their lives during that time.
and those memories, those memories are sad.
It is a great honour for us to take the field today to play for Zimbabwe in the World Cup.
We feel privileged and proud to have been able to represent our country.
We are, however, deeply distressed about what is taking place in Zimbabwe
in the midst of the World Cup and do not feel that we can take the field
without indicating our feelings in a dignified manner and in keeping with the spirit of cricket.
We cannot in good conscience take to the field and ignore the fact that millions of our compatriots are starving, unemployed and oppressed.
We are aware that hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans may even die in the coming months through a combination of starvation, poverty and AIDS.
We are aware that many people have been unjustly imprisoned and tortured simply for expressing their opinions about what is happening in the country.
We have heard a torrent of racist hate speech directed at minority groups.
We are aware that thousands of Zimbabweans are routinely denied their right to freedom of expression.
We are aware that people have been murdered, raped, beaten and had their homes destroyed because of their beliefs
and that many of those responsible have not been prosecuted.
We are also aware that many patriotic Zimbabians oppose us, even playing in the World Cup, because of what is happening.
It is impossible to ignore what is happening in Zimbabwe.
Although we are just professional cricketers, we do have a conscience.
and feelings.
We believe that if we remain silent,
that will be taken as a sign that either we do not care
or we condone what is happening in Zimbabwe.
We believe that it is important to stand up for what is right.
We have struggled to think of an action that would be appropriate
and that would not demean the game we love so much.
We have decided that we should act alone
without other members of the team being involved
because our decision is deeply personal
and we did not want to use our senior status
to unfairly influence more junior members of the squad.
We would like to stress that we greatly respect the ICC
and are grateful for all the hard work it has done
in bringing the World Cup to Zimbabwe.
In all the circumstances,
we have decided that we will each wear a black arm band
for the duration of the World Cup.
In doing so, we are mourning the death of democracy
in our beloved Zimbabwe.
In doing so, we are making a silent plea
to those responsible to stop the abuse of human rights in Zimbabwe.
in doing so we pray that our small action may help to restore sanity and dignity to our nation
well that was andy flower and henry alonger and jonathan it's such a rare thing isn't it to hear
sportsmen making such a principal stance has there ever been a braver stance in any sport
someone will probably say there has been somewhere but i can't think of one one white man
one black man both highly intelligent both love their kind of
country. It made that stand because they obviously felt that they had to do it. And bear in mind that Robert
Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, actually his residence is right next door to the cricket ground
in Harare. He was the patron of Zimbabwe cricket, like the president. He was, you know,
so how much thought must have gone into that. You try and keep politics and sport separate. I think
as important that it is in many fronts, although there have been occasions, like with
apartheid clearly, where sport played a big role in bringing about political change.
This one, I don't think, brought about necessarily political change, but it certainly brought
great awareness to what they felt was happening within Zimbabwe.
And because of that, they were very sympathetically viewed.
I mean, some political statements are not on sporting grounds, but this was.
and it was very, very powerful.
And the fact, Jim, that 12 years on, neither of them
have ever set foot in Zimbabwe again?
Yes, well, you ask the question.
Has life improved it in that country?
One would hope so.
And there's still lots of discussion
and when it comes to cricket about where the money goes
and hopefully the players are getting some of it.
But it was an extraordinary protest
and around all of that because England boycotted the game
which may have cost them a spot in the semi-finery.
Whereas Australia, I remember going up to Bulawayo and carrying around massive brown bags of money to make sure we've got our line and the rest of it.
And the exchange rate was something phenomenal, a bit like Germany before the Second World War.
So it was a bizarre occasion paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a stake in Bulawayo.
I can still remember doing that.
And without the politics, I mean, before all this started and there was a lot of control.
obviously, as you say, in politics beforehand.
But Shane Worn failed a drugs test in somewhat farcical circumstances as well.
Yes, well, there have been aspects of Warnie's life that he probably hasn't as managed as well as he might have.
And whether it was him or his mother involved in that little exercise that sent him to Coventry for 12 months, it can be argued.
But what it did do when he withdrew so surprisingly on the eve of the war,
World Cup was again galvanised the Australians into putting up a show and it was Andrew Simons
who walked out almost straight away in the first game and made a rousing 100 against Pakistan
in Johannesburg it was a stunning innings and Australia's momentum was not stopped from there
on so despite the fact that Warren had to withdraw in such an embarrassing way and given his
status in the game and his ability to swing matches he was obviously going to be missed but
didn't phase Australia as it turned out
and they romped on
and unhappy memories though for England
in so many ways Jonathan
well politics just plays a huge part in this tournament
I mean bear in mind that New Zealand actually
didn't go to Kenya
this is at the very start as well for some political reason
which meant that they didn't qualify
New Zealand didn't qualify for the second stage
Kenya did as did Zimbabwe
I remember going to do a super six match in Blumfontein
this should be the highlight in a real revving up of the tournament
it was Zimbabwe against Kenya with about four people there
Because England hadn't qualified, of course, because we were there in Cape Town, all building up to this, should they go, should they not go.
We were there for about a week.
In the Cullinan Hotel, there's a big grassy lawn square outside it.
And this was just covered in television cameras.
And we were just going from one to the other, reporting these meetings that were going on.
Can you remember the group, the alleged terrorist group, that the ECB had this letter from in January?
The sons and daughters of Zimbabwe, never heard of them again.
But it was this letter that was written to the ECB that they kept from the players.
The players didn't know about it.
It came out in one of these meetings that was issuing death threats against the players and their families.
And that was what really threw the cat among the pigeons at the end.
And they decided not to go.
I think most people thought that this was some sort of spoof this letter.
But anyway, it had a huge impact on the players.
They just lost trust with the board from that moment on the fact that this letter
had been at the ECB
and they hadn't told the players
that was all the trust gone really
but these negotiations they went on and on
and on there was no focus
for England at all as I say they didn't
make it through to that next stage
I remember seeing Henry Longer
at one of those matches
this was after the protest
and he had said he told me that he was
seriously worried about he felt
he was being followed
because of what had happened and of course
he left the country as soon as Zimbabwe were knocked out
He was away.
You're listening to 10 moments that shocked the cricket World Cup
and Jonathan Agnew and Jim Maxwell with me for the next 10 minutes or so.
Now at the 2011 World Cup, England were involved in many dramatic games,
but none as incredible as the one in Bangalore against Ireland.
They set the Associate Nation 327 to win,
and it looked like a formality as Kevin O'Brien came to the crease
with Ireland struggling on 111 for 5 at the halfway stage.
It's heaved away, that's going to be six.
Another defiant hit from Kevin O'Brien.
He was rather strange, especially dyed, pink hair, poking out from behind his green cap.
A couple of us died of hair for the Irish charity, the cancer charity.
So I think a few of us, we weren't really too happy with it, how it came out at the end of the day.
But, you know, it was all for a good cause.
This one again, from Wider of the Crease.
He's got for another big hit, that's another six.
That's good to see.
Well, that than people were just coming out and blocking out the overs.
He didn't really have much to lose at that stage, you know.
I've said it before, you know, we could have just potted around and, you know,
bad it reasonably sensibly and, you know, got a modest total of 270, 280, you know,
and kind of lost with our heads held high.
Good cricket here, and it's being played by Kevin O'Brien of Ireland.
You know, I myself and Alex spoke and we just said, let's have a crack, you know.
if we get bowled out for 130
so be it
let's try and go
and try and take the game
to England and try and put them on the back foot
What a remarkable shot
That is a extraordinary cricket shot
He has just
Blamp that flat
Over couple point for six
Let me tell you Simon
They're certainly in a game
There is no doubt about that
What a beautiful shot that was
We had a very good power play
you know and I think it sett us up beautifully
and you know I think with 17
overs to go we probably needed around
seven and a half and over maybe seven and over
you know and just from from then
I knew that we we had the upper hand
all to go Brezzen runs
in Bowles try Brunsett's a huge one
away into the stands
and the supporters down there
all trying to fight over the ball it's gone miles
I felt if I was there
myself or Alex were there to the end of the game
we'd have a great chance of winning it
So, you know, I suppose that's when I kind of reined myself in a little bit and just took the singles that were on offer and, you know, tried to be there at the end.
And Kevin O'Brien from nowhere has scored the fastest hundred in World Cup history.
From 50 balls, it's an absolutely unbelievable innings under the circumstances.
He came in with the game dead and buried.
And through some huge hitting, six sixes and 13 powerful fours.
He has taken Ireland with an easy range of causing the biggest upset of the tournament.
The word great for his inions is truly applicable.
I'd say from about six or seven overs out, I knew we were going to win the game.
Just the way, I suppose, the way the look was going for us and the way Mooners came in and batted
and I suppose looking around at the English field.
The island have won and bats are being thrown in the air.
The island team are running on to hug the two batsmen out in the middle.
One of the most incredible matches in the history of one day cricket.
just jumped around in the change rooms like Mad Men.
I remember looking at the ball
and as he hit it I knew he was going for four
and I just turned around and
there was six or seven of us
just hugging and just jumping around
falling over chairs and everything
it was quite a special feeling to have
and the ground in Bangalore
you share the same viewing area as the opposition
so I think
a few of us broke away quite early from the celebrations
to go over and I always shake the hands
of the English coach and their players
I'm virtually in tears here.
I can hardly speak.
I just never thought that this would happen.
And it's just been the most incredible day
in Irish cricket history.
And if we've done anything today,
I just sincerely hope we've woken the world up
to say we can compete at this level.
And that was Alan Lewis who joined Simon Mann
and Yu Agas in the TMS commentary box.
What an incredible day.
And I think even the most devoted England supporter
would have actually just
relished the joy of that innings
from Kevin O'Brien. If you love cricket, you love that. Paul Andrew
Strauss captured his 34th birthday as well. That's in my notes here. I've managed to
dig this one out from my notebook. I mean, the game was over.
115 for 5 in the 25th over
when O'Brien walked out to bat. I've forgotten about his hair,
this incredibly dyed hair that he had for that
cancer charity that he was highlighting. He was dropped,
actually, he was dropped by Strauss actually on 91.
That, I guess, would have made a difference.
But the point was that the game was over.
The game was dead and buried.
And we were thinking, I think we had to move on somewhere the next day, right, let's get packed up.
And we can pull a plug out of that and we can get a quick get away.
And off we go, it was finished.
So, you know, the innings was played under those circumstances.
He knew he had nothing to lose.
But he hit the ball so cleanly and so far.
And, of course, his confidence grew.
And England, who weren't very confident in that one day side anyway in that World Cup,
you could feel them tensing up.
I mean, there's some horrible bowling figures there, Broaden, I know it was for 73, Bres went for 60, I mean, yeah, they were all going round the park, swan with a 50, you know, that you could feel the tension.
That from the match before, of course, let's not forget, at the same ground, a brilliant tie that England had pulled off against India, when Shazad came in, he had one ball to face and hit it for six to tie the game.
So England had come into this game from that, an amazing tie from nowhere, they're going to lose that game against India.
and then you lose to Ireland on those circumstances.
I mean, it says everything about cricket, doesn't it?
Well, last but no, by no means least,
one of the most enduring images
in 40 years of cricket World Cup history.
When Bermuda qualified for the 2007 World Cup,
they played England in a warm-up game.
There were many sniggers at Bermuda's 20-stone spinner,
Dwayne Leverock,
who took the wickets of Paul Collingwood and Kevin Peterson
before getting Kumar Sanga Kara out in the group stages.
But the highlight was the photograph of his dust.
diving slip catch against India.
Huddo 84 contacted us on Twitter to say this is his favorite cricket memory of all time.
Well, we tracked Dwayne down in Bermuda, where he still works as a prison van driver.
It was a dream on truth because, you know, I always said to myself,
if one day I'm going to get to that mountain where I'm going to climb
and to be a part of that World Cup.
And when we found out we have more than one chance to qualify,
we took a bit of both hands and said this could be our last chance.
So we just what we did.
And you started off well in the warm-up games, didn't you?
You actually played England,
and you took the wickets of Paul Collingwood and Kevin Peterson.
Yeah, yes, I did.
It was a good memory.
Kevin Peterson and Paul Cullen were still good friends with me today.
It was a really good experience.
I just decided that, you know, I'm just going to build with him myself
and the wicket assisted me.
And I was able to drag Peterson down the wicket,
and he was stumped, and very next ball.
Paul Colomwell's edge to the Wickeber.
So have you kept in touch with them since?
Yeah, we keep in touch.
And actually, my young nephew, he's over in England.
He lives in England right now.
He's in the University of Cardiff, but he's a part of the MCC.
Youngsts is that billed to the Tass Nations.
And he was actually over there when they had the charity game if they were all 11.
And he saw Paul Collinwood and Colomwood send his regards to me and KP send his regards.
Now, there was a lot of talk, I think, after that,
game against England, I think the media cottoned on to you, didn't they? And I think maybe
it was obviously because of your bowling skills, but also because you were, you were not a small
man. Yeah, I wasn't a small man, but I was, I work hard and train hard, and I was pretty
agile on my feet. You know, that didn't really bother me because I knew that, like, I carried
my weight. Do you mind me asking how much you weighed at the time? At the time, I'd about
270. That's around about 20 stone. Yeah.
Do you think that maybe some players looked at you and just underestimated you, as you say,
because you moved so well that they didn't think that you were as good a player as you actually were?
Yeah, a lot of players. Even in the qualifiers and stuff,
they didn't think that I was able to move around and too. And the fans were to hack on me and stuff.
But once they saw me start to play, they changed their mind and apologized.
now you came up against
Sri Lanka and another big
scalp for you because you got Kumar Sanger
out and then you played India
and just have a listen to this Dwayne
edged and taken one of
catch that's a stunning catch
lever up the catcher
he's on a lap of unaware is he
the big man the fridge has opened
he's flown like a gazelle
I can't believe it
a brilliant catch
boys you need another nine wikis the game
isn't over
The Earth's short, what a catch!
Oh, what a catch!
The big man, he's off.
And we get a dance as well.
What does it feel like listening back to that, Dwayne?
Yeah, I breathe back with my memories.
It gives you a little bit of goosebumps.
It's just something that, you know, I knew I could do.
And the Lord gave me an opportunity to play in the World Cup
and actually complete their feet.
Just describe what it was like from your point of view.
Just talk us through that ball
and the point where you realize,
that it was coming to you, well, I was going to say at catchable height,
but it was not at catchable distance, was it?
It was miles away from you.
At the beginning of it would be over.
The first ball was, they were Malachi.
Jones was preparing for his run-up.
He was telling the Ricky Badeem-M-A-M-A-Nus,
I feel that's got this urge that something's going to come down to slip,
so let's be ready.
Let's commit, and let's just try to hurl onto it as much as we can.
And as Malachi ran in and the boats outside of the old stump,
Robin the Topper, slashed that a little bit, and they went wide, so I just committed.
As soon as it came off the air, they said, I'm going to give it all I can,
and I held on to the catch, watch it into my hand, and sprung up.
And as I was going to run to Malakar, I'd celebrate with him.
I saw a lot of the other players, so I ran the opposite way, not to get in crushed by the other players.
You lost all three games, didn't you, at the World Cup?
But on your return to Bermuda, you were a hero, weren't you?
You were sports personality that year.
Yeah, a sports personality.
the other year and I was also the athlete at the year.
That must have been a very proud time
for you. Yeah, I was very proud.
You know, I tried to give my best for my country,
you know, and that's all I believe in.
Do you still have the picture up on your wall?
No, I have a picture.
Just, you know, when I walk in my living room,
I just glance at it, you know,
and just think of the memories.
And do any of the guys that you're taking to prison recognize you?
Yeah, a lot of them, I mean,
we have chats when they drive up,
and sometimes they just talk about me playing cricket
and they used to watch me in and they admire me
and we just have a nice conversation.
And how does it feel after all these years
that we're still talking about that catch?
It's one of the most memorable catches at any World Cup, really.
Yeah, it feels really good.
And each time, you know, you just see these moments,
you have to cherish them.
Well, that was Dwayne Leverock,
speaking to me from Bermuda.
Paul on Twitter says,
My hero keeps my dream of being a professional cricketer alive.
We've been rounding up our 10 moments
that shocked the cricket World Cup
But Agers and Jim, just to finish it all off for us.
What other moments do you think we could have included, Agers?
What about you?
For me, I think one of the best games I've seen was actually the final in 2011 in Mumbai,
in which I think two of the best innings, one day things I've seen, took place.
Mahela Jaya Warden has 103 not out for Sri Lanka batting first, 88 balls, 13-4s.
It was an absolutely beautiful innings.
Anyone who would have seen Mahela Jain and Warden abat one know exactly what I mean.
It seemed to be enough.
It was a beautiful innings, and then that thumping innings from MS Doni to win the game for India at the end, 91 or out, 8, 4s, 2, 6s, he smashed the ball all over the place.
And you can imagine what the atmosphere was like in the one, Kali Stadium for India to win the World Cup final.
I will never forget that.
Jim Aggers, thank you both, and both of them will be part of our commentary team during the World Cup.
You can listen via Five Live Sports Extra, the BBC Sport website and app, or BBC Sounds, where you can also subscribe.
to this podcast.