The world knew Martin Crowe as a master batsman. But the New Zealander was one of the shrewdest of thinkers in the game as well. The Cricket World Cup came to his country in 1992, and Crowe was determined to stamp his mark on it. He scored heavily in tournament and had an enormous role guiding his team to the semi-finals before Inzamam ul-Haq played a blinder to send the Kwis into mourning.

The ICC Cricket World Cup has been an arena for experiment and many teams have deployed ideas that have become standard issue over time.

West Indian Clive Lloyd was among the first captains to use a pinch-hitter. On June 7, 1975, Lloyd sent wicketkeeper Derreck Murray to open with Roy Fredericks against the Sri Lankans. One of the most talked about phenomena of the 1992 edition was Martin Crowe’s opening bowler gambit. The Kiwi tossed the new ball to off spinner Dipak Patel. Patel bowled 70 overs in seven matches, and finishing with 8 wickets for 213 runs.

Another Crowe experiment in the 1992 ICC Cricket World Cup was with Mark Greatbatch, a middle-order batsman sent to open the innings. The rule restricting the field for the first 15 overs was never used in the manner Greatbatch did and for him the ICC Cricket World Cup was a huge success, and he scored 313 runs off 356 balls in the tournament.

It would not be stretching it to say that the Crowe-Greatbatch experiment changed the nature of ODI batting. Its most effective deployment was in the next edition of the World Cup. Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya, who batted at number eight, was promoted to opener in 1996. Jayasuriya came into the team as a left-arm spinner and not known, at least outside his team, as being a particularly effective batsman.