An all-conquering West Indies line-up captured their second World Cup thanks to the brilliance of Viv Richards and Joel Garner in the final.
West Indies repeated as World Cup winners
But team captain Clive Lloyd also gives credit to Collis King for an explosive 86 in the Caribbean side's 92-run demolition of England.
There had been turmoil in the two years before the tournament because of Kerry Packer's World Series, and some teams refused to select their Packer players. How did it affect the West Indies?
All the tournament's major players went to Packer so when we returned we did it as a full force. Beforehand there were guys on the verge of great things.
We had a hiatus for that period but we learnt a lot playing in the Packer Series, and played a lot of one-day cricket.
Do you think the 1979 team was the strongest West Indies line-up ever?
During that period we had one of the best teams we've ever produced. When you look at the batting there were young guys who were really in their prime.
Viv Richards starred with an unbeaten 138. What do you remember of the West Indies innings?
I remember that but I remember Collis King too because at one stage he dominated and Viv took a backseat.
People tend to forget Collis making 86 in just 66 balls and he really helped put the game beyond England.
Did you view England as already beaten once the West Indies had hit 291?
We were a unit in those days - it didn't matter if it was a big score or not we defended it really well. And on that day we did it quite easily.
England got off to a slow start in reply, Mike Brearley and Geoffrey Boycott taking two hours to reach 120. Do you think that was because of their inexperience at one-day level?
They probably wanted to prove to people that they could face our attack but then they realised that it wasn't a Test, it was a one-day game.
They couldn't get started as such because our guys were so restrictive - you couldn't hit them anywhere
How did Joel Garner's five wickets in 11 balls look from your position at slip?
Once England had fallen behind, whenever they tried to play shots, they got out, at very regular intervals. Garner broke the back. It was just wonderful.
After winning the first two World Cups you were favourites to win a third four years later. What went wrong?
We only lost two games in the first three World Cup tournaments and one was the 1983 final. The other loss was also against India so we should have realised.
But we approached a target of 184 in a complacent manner. Had it been 284 we would probably have had a better approach to it.
After the tournament we went on tour to India and won all five one-day games. We were the better side - there was no doubt - but they played better than us on that day. They were perhaps mentally stronger.