2003 Cricket World Cup

▪ 2004

      Despite political controversy over games to be played in Zimbabwe and Kenya, the suspension of Australian bowler Shane Warne (one of cricket's leading stars) before a ball had been bowled, and the surprise elimination of host nation South Africa, the 2003 World Cup ended on a high note. After 54 matches spread over 43 days, Australia emerged victorious, beating India by 125 runs in the final, held on March 23 in Johannesburg, S.Af., to retain the trophy it had won in England in 1999. Even without Warne, who was later suspended for a year for having taken a diuretic pill given to him by his mother, Australia was a class apart. Matthew Hayden and captain Ricky Ponting were particularly destructive batsmen, and a posse of high-class bowlers was led by Brett Lee and, until an injury forced him to return home, Jason Gillespie.

      England's protracted debate over whether to play in strife-torn Zimbabwe affected the entire mood of the tournament. No one, from the England and Wales Cricket Board to the International Cricket Council (the World Cup organizers), emerged from the wrangling with any credit. When the English team decided to withdraw from its match in Zimbabwe for security reasons, it effectively cost the team a place in the second-round “super six” group of matches. A more effective protest was mounted by two Zimbabwean players, Henry Olonga and Andy Flower, who both wore black armbands in their country's opening match to symbolize the death of democracy in Zimbabwe. Olonga went into hiding after the tournament, and Flower effectively immigrated to England.

      New Zealand's similar boycott of its match in Nairobi, Kenya, also skewed the final results, allowing Kenya and Zimbabwe to progress at the expense of more powerful and marketable teams such as West Indies, England, and South Africa. A complex point-scoring system for the second round of matches, which allowed points to be taken forward from first-round games, rendered many of the super six games irrelevant and compounded the growing disinterest in the tournament around the world. Kenya's joy at becoming the first non-Test-playing nation to reach a World Cup semifinal lifted spirits, as did the batting of Canada's John Davison, who scored the fastest century in the tournament's history (in 67 balls against the West Indies), but too many games were one-sided. One match, in which Sri Lanka beat Canada by nine wickets, lasted just 140 balls.

      South Africa, one of the pretournament favourites, failed to progress because, in a rain-affected match against Sri Lanka, the batsmen misread the recalculated figures for victory and failed to score off the last ball before rain wiped out play. The South Africans thought that they had won until it became clear that the match had been tied. The extra point put Sri Lanka through at the expense of South Africa. Shaun Pollock, the captain, wept and later was sacked.

      India's Sachin Tendulkar, named the Man of the Tournament, scored 673 runs (average 61.18), breaking his own world record for the tournament. Sadly, he failed when it really mattered, in the final, though an unbeaten 140 by Ponting had already effectively sealed the game and the trophy for the defending champions.

Andrew Longmore

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