CRICKET
Will the Proteas stand the heat?
The Proteas know World Cup heartbreak, but a slice of luck could change it all
In the first Cricket World Cup final in 1975, a tall Guyanese left-hander in a floppy white hat strode to the wicket with his team in trouble at 50 for three. The left-hander’s name was Clive Lloyd and it was a summer’s day at Lord’s in London. With the West Indies playing Australia and so many West Indians living in London, the occasion had a Caribbean flavour. Fans in string vests and corduroy bell-bottoms drank rum as they waved their islands’ flags. Sometimes they spilt onto the field — with beverage in hand — to offer the boundary fielders their wit and wisdom. When Lloyd was finished at the crease he had scored 102 and the West Indies were no longer in trouble. His whirlwind century took 82 balls and 100 minutes. It is no exaggeration to say those 100 minutes shook the cricketing world and established an empire. In its way, it was as significant as sending a man into space, or planting the Stars and Stripes on the moon. Those runs began, and defined, the start of a buccaneerin...
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