The same eight, the same grounds, a very different gap
Four years on, the World Cup returned to England with almost nothing altered. Prudential still sponsored it, the matches were still sixty overs, the final was still at Lord's. The only change to the field was Canada, who had come through the inaugural ICC Trophy in place of East Africa. What had changed was the distance between the best side and everybody else.
The West Indies of 1979 had four fast bowlers and a batting order that scored quickly without appearing to try. They won every match they played. Their one setback was administrative rather than sporting: three days of rain at The Oval washed out the fixture against Sri Lanka without a ball being bowled, and the points were shared. Elsewhere the group stage was chiefly memorable for how badly it went for the newcomers. Canada were bowled out for 45 by England at Old Trafford, a total that took them forty overs to compile.
Sri Lanka, by contrast, did something nobody had managed before. At Old Trafford on 16 June they made 238 for 5 and beat India by 47 runs, the first World Cup win by a side from outside the Test-playing nations. India went home without a victory to their name.
Richards and King
The semi-finals were close, at least on one side of the draw. England edged New Zealand by nine runs at Old Trafford with the New Zealanders needing fourteen from the final over. The West Indies made rather easier work of Pakistan at The Oval.
Then came 23 June. England put the West Indies in and had them 99 for four, at which point Richards was joined by Collis King, a batsman of no great reputation who made 86 from 66 balls and took the innings away from Mike Brearley's attack inside an hour. Richards stayed to the end for 138 not out and finished with a six off the last ball of the innings. England needed 287. They started well enough, Geoffrey Boycott and Brearley putting on 129, but they used 38 overs doing it. When the acceleration finally came, Joel Garner produced five wickets for four runs in eleven balls in fading light and England lost their last eight wickets for 11.
After
The West Indies became the first side to retain the trophy, and they had still not lost a World Cup match. It remains the only time a team has gone through two consecutive tournaments unbeaten. England's defeat began a pattern that took on a life of its own, since they would lose two more finals inside the next decade. And Sri Lanka's win at Old Trafford, minor at the time, was the first real evidence that the eight-team invitation list would not hold forever.