Watch highlights of England beating Australia at the 1992 World Cup via this link.
If there is one thing England’s current crop will be aware of, it is how close the margins of victory and defeat can be.
England’s previous cricketing generations have experienced the glorious uncertainties, highs, and lows in all formats of the game, not least at the 1992 World Cup.
It was the first time the showpiece event was held Down Under, as well as the first time coloured clothing was worn.
England emerged as one of the best sides in the tournament and only narrowly missed out on winning the trophy, as Imran Khan's Pakistan claimed the honours in the final.
With so much history attached to the tournament, it is fitting that the stars from the 1992 squad should provide the inspiration for Eoin Morgan and Co. as they hope to go one better this year.
England began their 1992 campaign against India on February 22, with Robin Smith scoring 91 and Dermot Reeve taking 3-38 to aid victory by nine runs.
Skipper Graham Gooch said:“Preparations were good because we were in New Zealand just prior to the World Cup for a Test series. Spirits were high. We had a few extra players join us in New Zealand: Ian Botham, Gladstone Small and Richard Illingworth. We moved to Australia. We had a good side, a good mix of experience and youth, and a very good fielding side.
Alec Stewart said: “It was my first World Cup; we’d just come off a pretty good trip to New Zealand that winter and we were confident. That was the best squad and best team that I played one-day cricket with throughout my England career. That group of players was the best balanced and most talented with youth and experience. We were quietly confident that we were going to do well. We went in there thinking we were playing good cricket and a few sides would be very wary of us, and so it proved.”
Graeme Hicksaid:"We had a really good winter. We started in New Zealand – we had a very good tour there and I think that sort of gelled the team well and (it was) actually one of the better England team environments that I played in throughout my England career so, yeah, that was a very enjoyable winter.”
England went on to win four out of their next five games – the only blip was a washout against Pakistan who, at 74 all out batting first, realistically would have lost had it not been for the rain. The fifth win came versus South Africa, also a rain-affected one, before losses to New Zealand and Zimbabwe meant they finished second in the table.
Gooch:“We started well in the competition. We beat India at Perth, Robin Smith playing particularly well. We would have beaten Pakistan but for rain in Adelaide. We had injuries. I got injured in a game against Sri Lanka, pulled my hamstring. But we got through okay, playing really good cricket. We had a superb win against Australia at Sydney where Ian Botham starred. He tended to save his best performances for the Aussies.”
England's reward was a semi-final with South Africa at the Sydney Cricket Ground, a match that is, perhaps, remembered more for the manner of South Africa’s defeat than for England’s superb batting, led by Hick’s 83.
Derek Pringle, one of England’s brightest bowlers in that tournament, said:“A lot of people considered us lucky to beat South Africa in the semi-final in the circumstances we did, but we had just lost two matches before that having played flawless one-day cricket up to that point.
“They cynically didn’t bowl their overs. We could have possibly got up near the 300-mark, which I think would have been far too many for them because they were just back from the wilderness. We had already beaten them in the round-robin. I have no sympathy for them – a lot of people have, but I have none. In fact, when we played them in the round-robin, the rain rules worked in their favour but we still managed to prevail, whereas they came a complete cropper against us because they’d bowled their overs slowly – it looked farcical.”
Stewart:“People shouldn’t forget they slowed their over-rate down. We didn’t face our full 50 because they were that slow, and people forget that. They look at the rain rule, but no one mentions their gamesmanship or whatever you want to call it. We were smacking them around at the end and nothing’s said about that. I’ve no sympathy for them at all – everyone knew what the rain rules were.”
Gooch: “We were giving them a lot of trouble at the back-end of our innings – Dermot Reeve and Chris Lewis if I remember – and they were going round the park. I remember them slowing it down, slowing their overs down, eating up more time. And that obviously cost them towards the end of their innings and we just run out of time. They were a little bit the architect of their own downfall.”
All said and done, England went into the final versus Pakistan with plenty of confidence, following the group stage display against the same opponents. Pringle’s three wickets, and six scalps between Botham, Small, and Phil DeFreitas had pretty much wrapped up that game, but for the weather.
The final, though, proved a different affair as Pakistan’s Wasim Akram produced inspired figures of 3-49 and Mushtaq Ahmed took 3-41 after their batsmen had put on 249. Pakistan went on to win by 22 runs despite a valiant 62 from Neil Fairbrother at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Pringle, who returned 3-22 in the final, said:“They didn’t look like getting anywhere near the final when we played them at Adelaide because they squirmed out of it there because it rained. They lost their next two games but I think Imran read them the riot act and they got on a run. In tournament play, if you hit a bit of form at the right time, you just never know.
“I was pleased that I started pretty well. We got a bit complacent in the middle of their innings because at one stage we thought they wouldn’t get 200, but it’s the power of having wickets in hand towards the end. Imran and Javed (Miandad) played it very cagily, they put on a good stand, and then Inzamam (-ul-Haq) and Wasim came in and smacked it at the end.”
Gooch:“At the latter end of the tournament, we’d probably gone off the boil a little bit. We weren’t quite good enough on the day is the truth of the matter. They played the better cricket. We didn’t play badly, but we didn’t play our best cricket. Probably the game-changer was Wasim Akram’s two wickets in two balls.”
Stewart:“We got beaten by a better team unfortunately. We were the best team in that tournament right up until the final, but Pakistan got stronger and stronger. They were poor early on but then played very good cricket and, on the day of the final, they outplayed us. It’s all hindsight but perhaps if DRS had been in use (Javed) Miandad would have gone first ball when Pringle hit him in front, but the facts are they outplayed us.”
Pringle: “Even Javed concedes it was out! Twice in one over – both looked pretty plumb.”
England’s 2015 squad will certainly be hoping to go one better than the class of ’92, who are pleased with the balance between youth and experience in the current crop.
Stewart:“We can shock a few people I think – I’ve enjoyed seeing Ian Bell and Moeen Ali up top. If we suddenly beat Australia, who are favourites, in the opening game, then we are not just also-rans. I like the way this team is coming together and I know this team can get better and it’s all about peaking. If we were to beat Australia up front that really does throw it wide open.”
Pringle:“A lot will hinge on whether the ball swings. If the ball swings I think Jimmy Anderson will be extremely important, and I think people are being overly despondent about England’s chances. If it does swing I think we’ve got an attack that can exploit that. Ian Bell seems to be in a bit of form too.”
Gooch:“I think we’ve got enough talent in our team to beat anyone, even Australia on Saturday. If we play well and our big players turn up, I think we can cause upsets. But we are consistently inconsistent. We can beat anyone, but can we hold it together over a tournament?”