World Cup match in which Kapil Dev opened for the first time, then the match ended in 2 balls

So which was the only ODI match played 33 years ago in the Great Barrier Reef Arena? It was an India-Sri Lanka match in the 1992 World Cup and for many reasons it was a historic and unique match.

Before further discussion on this ODI, see the reasons that made a return as McKay’s ODI venue. The city of McKay is in the Queensland State and is situated on the eastern coast of Australia. Although cricket has not yet received the green signal to be included in the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, Queensland has started preparing for cricket. In the sports days, looking at the pleasant weather of McKay, considering McKay as one of the special venue for cricket matches. McKay is also called ‘Chugger Capital’ of Australia.

This time, a very close series between the two countries ended with matches in McKay and this ODI series was won by South Africa 2–1. Many new records were made during the third ODI, but they also cannot match the news from McKay’s last ODI International 33 years ago.

It was the day of 28 February 1992, only 3000 people inside the stadium and they got them? The game started delayed by 5 hours due to rain. Although already knew that the rain would disrupt the match, but they came and kept waiting in the open till the game started. Eventually, the match was reduced to 20–20 overs.

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose bowling. Ajay Jadeja made his debut for India. The match started that two balls later torrential rains filled the ground with water. Both these balls were played by Srikanth- stopped the first and then took a run. When the rain did not stop, the umpires David Shepherd and Ian Robinson finally declared the match canceled. The run that Srikanth scored was the only run of men’s international matches on this ground for 33 years.

Do you know who were other openers with him? During that World Cup, the trend of sending a loud batsman for opening began to take advantage of the new ban of fielding in the first few overs. In the same policy, Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin also sent Kapil Dev for opening with regular opener Ravi Shastri. This was the first time Kapil entered the role of opener.

Some more funny things related to the match:

* This India-Sri Lanka ODI match was in the 1992 Benson and Hedge World Cup. The new condition of colorful clothes, white balls, flood lights and fielding restrictions started from this World Cup.

* In those days McKay’s stadium was named Ray Mitchell Oval and now this is the great barrier Reef Arena.

* At that time, this stadium was also used for Australian Rules Football. That is why there was no right basic arrangement for any international cricket match. Especially in the event of rain, there was no special arrangement to dry outfields.

* McKay’s distance and that too being settled on one side, seeing the difficulty in bringing all equipment here, the broadcaster had already said that he would not telecast the match. So despite being a special match of the World Cup for both teams, it did not telecast it.

*Despite the rain, the organizers tried their best to start it to make a record of playing the first international cricket match on this ground. A helicopter was also ordered to dry outfield which was engaged in this work for 47 minutes.

* When the audience sat for hours waiting for the game to start, finally, during the schedule lunch break, the Local Cricket Association organized a dance performance for their entertainment. Most of the reports of the match wrote that some cricketers of the Indian team performed aerobic dance in this entertainment show.

On the contrary, the report of this match published in the Hindi cricket magazine, the Cricket Emperor in India wrote that for the entertainment of the bored audience, the organizers called a group of girls from the local club for dance performance on the ground. She danced in exercise dress. During that time, the first of India’s cricketers, Kapil Dev came to the ground to dance with him. Later Vinod Kambli and Subroto Banerjee also joined it. Kambli was also seen dancing by holding the hands of those girls. It was an entertaining aerobic dance and Team Doctor, Dr. Ali Irani was its ‘director’.

Wisden later wrote, “Aerobic dance of Indian players exercised during lunch was the only entertainment for the audience of that day.”

* Actually there was no rain for the last several months … but the last night there was a storm that 4-5 inches of snow also fell. The then Chief Barry Jenson, the then Chief of the McKay Cricket Association, also told that he had fallen behind Cricket Australia and Queensland cricket to bring the World Cup match for McKay. So they wanted to play in the match at any cost. That day he felt the lack of supersopper in the ground.

* Till date, this is the smallest ODI match in which a ball was thrown.

* After this match, in that World Cup, Kapil also scored just 10 runs against Zimbabwe in Hamilton. He was also an opener in Motera against the West Indies in 1993-94 but was able to score only 1 run. In this way, for India, making them an opener was not a good use.