This weekend, the 1987 World Cup squad will reunite for the first time in 30 years, to be finally presented with their winning World Cup medals. Over the past few years some of the 1987 squad members have poked some fun at some Cricket Australia board members that it was OK for the 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015 Australian squads to receive their medals, but not us.



Finally, CA spoke to the International Cricket Council to approve a medal presentation to the squad this Sunday night and celebrate what really is the forgotten World Cup. Back in 1987, sadly even Channel Nine did not show any live coverage and ABC radio only took the broadcast of the final from the BBC. There was clearly a thought that it wasn't important enough or that we couldn't win it.



I can't half blame anyone, considering we lost our last five one-day internationals before leaving for India earlier in the year. We needed a shake-up and Allan Border and coach Bob Simpson decided that we should leave two weeks early and fly to Madras for proper preparations before the first game against India.



It was only one year earlier that we experienced the tied Test in Madras and Border and Simpson felt it would be great to revisit the ground and the heat and get used to Indian conditions. The practice pitches out the back were very poor. One time I had to stop Craig McDermott bowling to me as two cows wandered onto the pitches. But we trained like no other and we were ready for India for our first World Cup Match.



What a match it was. I remember hitting Maninder Singh for a six, but Ravi Shastri signalled that it was only four. I was furious and told umpire Dicky Bird what I thought. Dicky responded, "I always take the fieldsman's word and it's four."



Our total finished on 269 and Simpson and I went to the umpires' room to again tell them that TV footage showed it was clearly a six. Bird said he would ask Ravi again and went into the Indian rooms. When he reappeared the four became a six and the total was changed to 271.



Steve Waugh bowled the best last over of all time to win it for us by one run. That night, the Australian team had the best party of all time, with Simon O'Donnell singing our new team song, Billy don't be a hero.



This song is about a soldier going to war and his fiancee telling him to "keep his pretty head low". Sadly, at the end of the song, his fiancee was told by a letter that Billy had died at war.



I have no idea why O'Donnell loved the song and why he knew all of its lyrics. Every time Australia won, O'Donnell would break out in song and the rest of the team would join in. We were not allowed to sing our normal Under the Southern Cross I Stand as that was only allowed after Test wins or one-day series wins.



Only three weeks earlier, unbeknown to the rest of the squad, O'Donnell was given cortisone for lumps on his ribs. He didn't want to miss this World Cup and was prepared to play with the pain, but he knew something was wrong. Really wrong.



As the tournament progressed, we started to believe that we might just win this thing. Simpson upped the ante on our fielding drills. "The best fielding team will win this," he would bellow at every opportunity. And we wanted everyone to know how hard we were working, too. After a narrow win against New Zealand we timed a training session for 6am in a spot where the Kiwis could see us. We trained until they went past in the team bus at 9.30 before heading back to bed, safe in the knowledge that they would let the English and the Indians and everyone else know how obsessively the Australians were working on their fitness, catching and ground fielding.

Border also wanted us to take the most singles. Run them ragged and put pressure on their fielding and bowling teams.

Sweet victory: Allan Border with the 1987 World Cup trophy.

Despite our theme song, Craig "Billy" McDermott, was definitely one of the heroes of our World Cup campaign. He always tried to swing the new ball early and regularly got the best of the opposition batsmen. Waugh and O'Donnell were encouraged to keep using their "change-up leg-spinners" at every opportunity.



When we arrived in Lahore for the semi-final, we were told that no Australian one-day team had won a game in Pakistan. We were so pumped that we were ready to hurt them. I remember a ball flicked off my pads and sadly, hit Pakistan wicketkeeper Saleem Yousuf in the mouth, costing him seven teeth. Tauseef Ahmed later broke his thumb badly when he dropped David Boon on a hard caught-and-bowled chance. Then Steve Waugh hit Salim Jaffer for 21 off the last over to give us a total of 267.



Pakistan were always going to struggle, particularly when Ramiz Raja tried to pinch one on Border's left hand, but the skipper threw the stumps down from mid-wicket. The brilliant bowling of McDermott, who took 5-44, meant Pakistan weren't in the hunt.

Straight after the match, we were told to change and be ready to leave as the management team were very worried about the Pakistan crowd. They were very upset that the home team lost. Some of us were still in our whites - this was the last World Cup played in whites - as we boarded a chartered flight that was quickly organised for us to travel to Calcutta for the final. When we were on the plane, O'Donnell was reminded that we hadn't sung the song. But he didn't want to do it as he was very quiet and down for some reason. Right then I knew something was seriously wrong.



The final against England was played in front of a massive crowd, with 90 per cent of the Indian fans favouring the Australian team. We batted very well with Boon making a dependable 75 and Michael Veletta scoring a brilliant 45 off just 31 balls to give us a total of 253.



McDermott removed Tim Robinson in the first over and we were away until England skipper Mike Gatting started to hit our bowlers to all parts.