by PHILIP SPOONER

IN THE 1975 CRICKET WORLD CUP two teams dominated proceedings.

The West Indies and Australia were at that time the two best sides in the world and they both played out of their skins.

When the two team met in the preliminaries at the Oval in London, Aussie fast bowling legend Denis Lillee was at his peak. Lillee, who is arguablythe greatest fast bowler of all time, was feared by batsmen.

The Windies had a sensational little left-hander named Alvin Kallicharan, who was willing to take on anyone at any stage. He took on Lillee and tamed him before a delirious fullhouse crowd.

In ten balls the sequence went – 44414604 – 27 runs with some sensation hook and pull shots as the West Indies romped to a seven-wicket win with almost 14 overs to spare.

Man against man

"It happened so long ago but I will always remember that day. In the day we used to say it's man against man and you could only compete against the best," he said. "We were brought up in the Caribbean to compete that way – man against man, best against best."

The 57-year-old Kallicharan, who hails from Guyana, now lives in London, England. In his playing days he was a small shot-maker. He has gained a bit of weight, but still looks trim.

"On that day it was my day and I kept going and going. It is difficult when you are involved, right there in the middle and the adrenaline is pumping to know a lot of what is going on around you. I was in a zone – it was my zone."

He still plays the game today. He is a member of the Lashings team which plays celebrity matches in England during the summer. He said he would be delighted to come back to the Caribbean and help with the development of the game.

"I would like to come back tomorrow morning. I am available to the West Indies Cricket Board in any capacity. West Indies cricket has been very good to players like myself and we are proud West Indians. We want that history to continue and we want that culture to live on."

In his playing days, Kallicharan made 4 399 runs at an average of 44.43 in 66 Tests. He had an outstanding first-class career making 505 appearances. He made 32 650 runs at 43.6 per innings, with 87 centuries.

He was part of the West Indies All Stars team at Kensington Oval last Saturday for the official re-opening of the historic ground. He said seeing some of his former teammates and heroes almost brought him to tears.

"When I saw some of the greatest cricketers like Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Vivian Richards, Wes Hall, Gordon Greenidge, Joel Garner, Desmond Haynes, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh celebrating this occasion, I felt proud to be a West Indian," the former Windies skipper said.

"We have been able to produce something [a ground] of this magnitude to compete with the rest of the world," he said.