When Clive Lloyd walked away with the Prudential Cup in 1975, one-day cricket had taken off in the right direction. But, it still was in the process of evolution. When Arjuna Ranatunga and his men did a lap of honour at Lahore's Gadhafi Stadium after finishing the 1996 World Cup as the only unbeaten team, one-day cricket had come of age. It had become a sport independent of its parental bondage Test cricket.Among the many reasons for instant cricket having acquired a life of its own was strategy which captains employ to adapt to changing situations. Strategy, which if employed in Test cricket, would have invited ridicule became meaningful in the shortened version. So meaningful that the Lankans possibly won the championship because of a complete break from the conventional. In the process, they have forced all the captains to reasses the way to deploy their forces in the forthcoming World Cup.For the Lankans in 1996, it was the concept of pinch-hitters right at the beginning of an innings. Former SriLankan cricketer, Ranjith Fernando, has described at length in the accompanying piece how the duo of Jayasuria and Kaluwitharna changed the very contours of the game by successfully carrying out Ranatunga's instructions of hacking the opening bowlers instead of chipping at them. It was an audacious move which left the rivals gasping for breath.Some would say the concept of the pinch-hitter was not a new one. It wasn't. Martin Crowe had showed to the world, by sending in Mark Greatbatch to open the innings in the 1992 World Cup, that this concept works. But the Sri Lankans went two steps ahead. They sent in two batsmen to open the innings with the explicit instructions that ``if Jayasuria can't get you Kalu must.' It was an audacious idea but it worked.Who would have thought when the first one-day match was played in 1971 that a day will come when an opener's ability to build an innings may go against him. Certainly not when the 1975 World Cup was held. Not even when the 1979, the 1983 and the 1987 WorldCups were held (Kris Srikkanth notwithstanding). In fact the first three World Cups all held in England and played over 60 overs followed a set route. An orthodox batting order and conventional bowling methods. The batting had to be opened by typical Test-style batsmen and the bowling by the two best medium pacers.It all changed in 1992 when not only did Greatbatch open the innings but even a spinner - Dipak Patel - opened the bowling. Martin Crowe had given a new vision to instant cricket and no longer was it going to be Test cricket being played in abridged form.Much before Deepak Patel arrived on the scene, Sunil Gavaskar, had opened the eyes of the world to the possibility of a spinner becoming a match-winner. In fact, he had gone to the exent of getting a leg-spinner - Sivaramakrishnan - to bowl the last over of an innings. A far cry from the seventies when spinners were thought to be liabilites.The World Cup is back in England. The conditions there are very different to the one inAustralia and the sub-continent. Will we see new methods being invented to adapt to the changing conditions? Maybe, the World Cup will go to the team which uses its skills to change the grammar of the game and confuse the rivals.
