Kaluwitharana runs out Warne in 1996 (Allsport).

By David Clough

Many outstanding talents have lit up the World Cup stage. Here David Clough remembers five stars that shone briefly.

Gary Gilmour (Australia, 1975)

Gilmour was a perennial understudy to Australia's pace greats Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson - yet at the World Cup in England in 1975 his performances and figures were sensational.

The left-arm quick bowler's one-day international career amounted to five matches, during which he took 16 wickets at a little over 10 runs each.

That reads well enough. But his two World Cup outings were even better. In his first match of the competition - the semi-final against England at Headingley - he proved near unplayable with a line of attack angled across the right-handers allied to the ability to bring the ball back in off the seam.

His figures were astounding - six for 14 in 12 overs, half of which were maidens - as England were skittled for 94 and Australia recorded a four-wicket win.

Gilmour's Match was followed by his return of five for 48 in the Lord's final won by the West Indies.

Respectable efforts were to follow in a short-lived international career which took in 15 Tests but was over by 1976.

Ross Edwards (Australia, 1975)

The long, hot summer of 1975 was Ross Edwards' international swansong - but he signed off in style in Australia's World Cup campaign.

His contributions were not as eye-catching as those of Gilmour. But the middle-order batsman was consistency itself in Australia's run to the final, failing only when he was unable to trouble the scorers in Gilmour's Match at Headingley.

He made only 28 in the final at Lord's. But he still finished top of the Aussie averages - in a line-up which included the Chappell brothers, Doug Walters and Rick McCosker.

Edwards, also a wicketkeeper, never reached the heights scaled by those team-mates. But he proved his ability in a short one-day international career which took place when the limited-overs game was still in its infancy.

Graeme Fowler (England, 1983)

Compact Lancastrian opener Fowler was England's Mr Consistency at the 1983 World Cup.

Less than a year after his international debut, Fowler hit a rich seam which promised an outstanding career to come.

He never produced the same level of form again on a regular basis for his country. But four consecutive half-centuries in the group stages - culminating in an unbeaten 81 in a nine-wicket win over Sri Lanka - saw Fowler second only to David Gower in the England averages.

Romesh Kaluwitharana (Sri Lanka, 1996)

The combative wicketkeeper-batsman is an oddity, because his statistics in the tournament which made his name were poor - in all but one respect.

Seventy three runs at an average of 12.16 from six innings represent an apparent failure for an opening batsman.

But the give-away figure is Kalu's strike rate - more than 140 - which was a sensation for any opener able to bat for any significant time. In his partnership with Jayasuriya, he helped change the shape of the game forever as Sri Lanka took the tournament by storm and pinch-hitting was born.

Kalu would fall into the useful all-rounder category in a 10-year international career. But he will always fill a prominent place in the development of the limited-overs game.

Geoff Allott (New Zealand, 1999)

The Kiwi left-arm seamer was the joint leading wicket-taker in an often dull early English summer which saw his team over-achieve by reaching the semi-finals.

Ideally suited by the prevailing conditions, Allott finished with 20 victims - the same tally as one Shane Warne.

In the four years which have followed, the master leg-spinner has continued to tick off the milestones associated with one of cricket's great careers.

Allott's hopes of building on his success have been dashed by injury. Persistent back problems have prevented him playing a Test match since that English summer, and his last one-day international was against South Africa in 2000/01.

Even so no one can take away his ultra-consistent performances - including his competition-best four for 37 in a five-wicket win over Australia at Cardiff - which singled him out as a high-quality seam-and-swing exponent entirely at home in English cricket.