Perched on the shoulders of Craig McDermott and Dean Jones, a beaming Allan Border thrust the 1987 World Cup aloft into the twilight at Eden Gardens.
There was no more striking image for Australian cricket in the largely dreary 1980s.
Border’s brow had been deeply furrowed for most of the previous three years as he led a team emasculated by retirements and rebel defections, but in this moment he looked young again.
His youthful team had carried all before them in a tournament where they stared down and defeated favourites India in the group phase, co-hosts Pakistan in the semi-finals then nemeses England by seven runs in an engrossing final.
Having lost the Ashes so wretchedly at home to Mike Gatting’s men only a handful of months before, Border’s side turned the corner in India.
They did it not with a team of enormous talent – though several squad members would go on to great things – but with the most united group on the subcontinent.
At a time when cricketers were still semi-professional in their attitudes and their pay packets, Border and coach Bob Simpson charted a spartan preparation.
The Australians arrived early, trained hard, and placed great emphasis on fielding and hard running between the wickets.
Every ounce of ability was capitalised upon, and no corners were cut in terms of planning.
Australia’s methods favoured batting first and defending a target, an approach that would become widely preferred by all teams across the tournament and the world over the next decade.
Save for the minnows Zimbabwe, the rest of the world seemed not quite so focused and drilled, though some fine cricket was played across the course of the event’s brisk 27 matches.
As chronicled by the Wisden Almanack, Border and his team were given a fair return for their investment of sweat, including the good fortune to win a majority of tosses.
“Luck aside, they were still the team most deserving of victory: they appeared to put the most into the tournament – the sweat was dripping from the peaks of the batsmen’s caps when they warmed up in Madras – and they gained their first success of note since 1984,” wrote Scyld Berry in his summary.
“The Australians had the same keen, uncynical spirit as the Zimbabweans. They worked and worked as a team; and every follower of the game had to be pleased in some measure when, at the end of the Australians’ victory lap around Eden Gardens, Allan Border was raised on the shoulders of his team-mates and the gold Reliance Cup placed in his hands.”
Border’s victory did not just give the appearance of shaving years off his features: it arguably lengthened his career.
Previously employed almost exclusively to save matches while his team collapsed around him, Border was now able to lead an ensemble that believed in themselves.
With occasional hiccups overseas and against the West Indies, the Australians would climb surely and inexorably towards the summit, eventually claiming global supremacy in 1995.
The 1987 Cup served as a clear starting point to that rise, and 24 years on provides a heartening lesson for Ricky Ponting’s battling current team as they tackle the 2011 event.
As Border proved, even the ignominy of a home Ashes defeat can lead to better days, and Ponting will hope for a similar renaissance over the next two months.
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