When Indian Cricketers Danced: Mackay’s Forgotten ODI of the 1992 World Cup

Mackay hosted its first ODI in 1992. Kapil Dev opened, rain ruined play, and cricketers even danced to entertain fans

India vs Sri Lanka 1992 cricket World Cup Story (Image Source: Google)

The Forgotten Story of Mackay’s First ODI in 1992: South Africa’s recent tour of Australia featured three T20Is and three ODIs, marking Darwin’s international return after 17 years and Mackay’s Great Barrier Reef Arena hosting its first men’s match — and first ODI in 33 years

Which was the only previous men’s ODI at the Great Barrier Reef Arena? It was between India and Sri Lanka at the 1992 World Cup, and it was a historic and unique match for various reasons.

Before discussing this ODI further, a brief about the reasons for the return of Mackay as an ODI venue. Mackay is in Queensland and is a coastal city on Australia's eastern coast. Although cricket has so far not received the green light for the Brisbane Olympics in 2032, but Queensland has started preparing for cricket with Mackay being seen as one of the venues for the cricket matches in view of the pleasant weather here, during the Games days. Mackay is also called the Sugar Capital of Australia.

This time, the result in Mackay rounded out an extremely closely fought series between the nations, with South Africa winning the ODI series 2-1. Various new records were created during the third ODI, but these numbers can’t match the news which came out of Mackay's last men's international, 33 years ago.

On 28th February 1992, only 3000 people were inside the stadium and what did they get? The play was delayed for five hours because of rain. It was known beforehand that the rain would disrupt the play, but they came and waited in the open, for the play to start. Ultimately, the match was reduced to 20 overs each.

Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bowl. For India, Ajay Jadeja made his debut. The match had barely started; the torrential rain flooded the ground after two balls. Krishnamachari Srikkanth played both the balls, blocking one and then took a single. The rain didn’t stop and ultimately umpires David Shepherd and Ian Robinson declared the match abandoned.

This remained the only run scored in men’s internationals at the venue for 33 years.

Do you know who the other opener was? During that World Cup, the trend of sending a hitter to maximise the first few overs, had started and falling in line, India captain Mohammad Azharuddin also dropped regular opener Ravi Shastri, and Kapil Dev had come out with Kris Srikanth. It was for the first time Kapil was elevated to the opener’s role.

Some other interesting trivia of the match:

*This India-Sri Lanka ODI was played during the 1992 Benson & Hedges World Cup, vividly remembered for the introduction of coloured clothing, white balls, floodlights and fielding restrictions.

*In those days, Mackay stadium was named Ray Mitchell Oval and now it is the Great Barrier Reef Arena.

*The stadium, mostly being used for Australian Rules Football, at that time, lacked proper infra for an international cricket match particularly to dry the outfield in case of rain.

* In view of the remote location and the difficulty in carrying all the equipment, the broadcasters had refused to televise this match, although an important World Cup fixture.

*In spite of rain, the organisers made their best efforts to start the first-ever international cricket match at the venue and even called for a helicopter to dry the ground, and it was used for 47 minutes.

* The biggest entertainment for the patient spectators was provided by the dance performance on the ground, during the scheduled lunch interval. Most of the match reports say that the entertainment was provided by some cricketers of the India team who performed aerobic dancing.

On the contrary, a match report in the popular Hindi cricket monthly, Cricket Samrat states that to entertain the boring spectators, the organizers summoned a group of girls from a local club to give a dance performance on the ground. They danced in short exercise dresses. Kapil Dev was the first Indian cricketer to join them in dance and later, Vinod Kambli and Subroto Banerjee also joined him. Kambli was seen dancing, holding the hands of the girls. It was entertaining aerobic dancing, perfectly orchestrated by Dr Ali Irani, team Doctor.

- The only entertainment was afforded by the aerobic dancing of the Indian players seeking exercise at the lunch interval,” Wisden later wrote.

- We hadn’t had rain for months... but we had this storm where we had four or five inches the night before,” said Barry Jansen, the then-president of Mackay Cricket Association. He revealed that he had “pestered” Cricket Australia and Queensland Cricket for a World Cup match in Mackay. He missed a super-sopper.

- This match still holds the record of being the shortest ever ODI, where a ball has been bowled.

- After this match, in that World Cup, Kapil opened against Zimbabwe at Hamilton also and scored 10. He also opened at Motera against the West Indies in 1993-94 but scored only 1. So, making him an opener was not a fruitful experiment for India.