5 lesser-known names that helped their teams to World Cup glory

#4 Mike Veletta

This is a name that might cause some uproar, with almost everyone reading right now going: “who?”

Well, the basis of this list is players who helped their teams to glory while being a lesser-known name at that point of time. In Mike Veletta’s case, however, he was, is and will remain a relatively unknown name.

Not that he cares, though, as avid Australian fans—the ones that really matter to him—will remember his swashbuckling display in the 1987 World Cup. He played just 4 games in the tournament, starting off with a duck before making 43 and 48 against Zimbabwe and Pakistan, respectively.

These scores alone were impressive given that he used to bat in the lower middle-order, but he wasn’t done just yet. As Australia were lingering at 168-4 after 39 overs, there was a sense of pessimism because the Baggie Greens had lost 3 wickets in the space of 17 runs and a collapse was just a bad stroke away.

However, Veletta came in all-guns-blazing and played one of the best cameos in the history of a World Cup final, scoring 45 in just 31 balls and helping Australia post a comprehensive target of 254—which England failed to chase.