Australia's 1987 World Cup winning squad receive medals after 30 years

What’s the Story?

Allan Border’s world cup winning squad of 1987 received their winners’ medals after 30 long years in a ceremony which was held at the innings interval of the match between Australia and Pakistan today.

“The members of the 1987 World Cup-winning squad were trailblazers. They made the country proud, created a belief and restored the winning culture that successive generations of players who followed were able to build upon,” said ICC Director David Peever

"They were worthy winners of a hard-fought tournament, beating India in India, Pakistan in Pakistan and England - then, perhaps, the best ODI side in the world and one that had beaten Australia in two separate limited-overs tournaments less than a year earlier - in the final. The victory enjoyed by Allan Border, his players and the support staff truly was the start of a wonderful era of success for Australian cricket, an era that can be traced back to that month in the subcontinent, so it's wholly appropriate they are recognised in this way," Peever continued.

In case you didn’t know...

Australia’s 1987 triumph was their first ever World Cup win. Allan Border’s side came up against a resurgent England side led by Mike Gatting. The final of the tournament was held at the historic Eden Gardens in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata). Australia, who chose to bat first after winning the toss put on a respectable total of 253 on the board with the loss of 5 wickets. David Boon top-scored for his side with 75 runs to his name. Border and Mike Veletta chipped in with worthy contributions of 31 and 45 respectively. In their response, England came extremely close to achieving their first World Cup win but were denied victory by some exemplary bowling and tight fielding by the Australians, who won the match by 7 runs.

The heart of the matter

The decision to commemorate these players was made by the International Cricket Council’s Executive Committee who decided to award medals to players and support staff of all World Cup-winning squads who did not receive them at the time of their successes.

What’s next?

It was decided that West Indies’s world cup winning side of 1975 and Sri Lanka’s winning side of 1996 will also receive their winners' medals soon.

Sportskeeda’s take

The decision should have probably been made long ago, but given the fact that the ICC were directly involved with hosting the World Cups only from 2003, it is an excellent decision made to award these teams with their medals which they deserve.