1966 World Cup Success

Images of Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst are embedded on the consciousness of all sports fans despite this being the fortieth year since England conquered all in the World Cup. I predicted last week that cricket would struggle to compete against the football festival in Germany. As I walked around Bath on Thursday evening searching for a pub that would be showing the England vs. Sri Lanka Twenty20 contest, my worst fears were confirmed. Wall-to-wall Sweden vs. Paraguay was all that was on offer.

As well as sport’s biggest global competition, England also hosted the first world tournament in limited-overs cricket in 1966. The 1912 triangular tournament featuring Australia, England and South Africa was the first ever competition featuring three teams, but was of the longer format. The 1966 version was also a threesome, with a World XI joining the touring West Indians to meet up at the end of the season for a round-robin contest at Lord’s.

The tournament was sponsored by Rothmans cigarettes, who had already associated themselves with one-day cricket by supporting travelling International Cavaliers contests against County sides on a Sunday, and was billed as the World Cup.

The competition took place against the backdrop of discussion about how to make cricket appeal to a wider public. Falling attendances at county matches was causing serious concern. In 1947, the number who paid for admission totalled two million, but within a decade that number had dropped to 1,200,000 and by 1966 to just over 500,000. The then Times cricket correspondent bemoaned the lack of variety, skill and inventive captaincy on offer at the average cricket match.

The England team was experiencing one of its too-regular cyclical downturns. In 18 home Tests against West Indies, Australia and South Africa, over the previous four years, England had won only twice, and for the first time on record, in 1966 had three captains in the same season, MJK Smith, Colin Cowdrey and Brian Close.

Desperate times allow for innovation, and if cricket was to compete with football, it had to offer something to the millions basking in the success of the shorter and easier to play game. That would be the one-day contest.

England won the 1966 World Cup by winning both of their games. Each of their players was rewarded with £100 in prize money. Interest though was patchy and three days of cricket featuring a wealth of world talent only persuaded 13,000 to pay at the turnstiles. And although the series was covered by the BBC, it had to share airtime with the racing from Goodwood.

The competition was repeated the following year, but came to an end once John Player moved onto scene to support the newly established one-day Sunday League. John Player would only plough their funds into cricket if they were guaranteed television coverage. The BBC was happy with showing the star-studded Cavaliers games, so the TCCB banned their players from competing in them.

MJK Smith spoke of how the players enjoyed playing the one-day game, and that they were enthusiastic for it to continue. Forty years on and we can point to these developments, which were possibly a consequence of the football tournament, as the advent of commercialism in cricket. England’s inability to master the subtleties of the one-day format may mean that the 1966 World Cup may be their last for some time.