1996 Cricket World Cup

Hosts

The competition was played in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. India hosted 17 matches at 17 venues, Pakistan hosted 16 matches at six venues and four matches were played at three Sri Lankan venues

Australia and the West Indies refused to send their teams to Sri Lanka following the bombing of Central Bank in Colombo by the Tamil Tigers in January 1996. After extensive negotiations, the ICC ruled that Sri Lanka would be awarded both games on forfeit.

India

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

• Two matches were scheduled to be played down at the Premadasa, but neither took place as Australia and the West Indies declined to play in Sri Lanka.

Squads

Main article: 1996 Cricket World Cup squads

Teams

All the Test-playing nations participated in the competition, including Zimbabwe, who became the ninth Test-status member of the ICC following the last World Cup. The three Associate teams (previously one) to qualify through the 1994 ICC Trophy – the United Arab Emirates, Kenya and the Netherlands – also made their World Cup debuts in 1996. The Netherlands lost all of their five matches, including a defeat to the UAE, while Kenya recorded a surprise victory over the West Indies in Pune.

Summary

The Sri Lankans, coached by Dav Whatmore and captained by Arjuna Ranatunga, used Man of the Series Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana as opening batsmen to take advantage of the fielding restrictions during the first 15 overs of each innings. At a time when 50 or 60 runs in the first 15 overs was considered adequate, Sri Lanka scored 117 runs in those overs against India, 123 against Kenya, 121 against England in the quarter-final and 86 against India in the semi-final. Against Kenya, Sri Lanka made 398 for 5, a new record for the highest team score in a One Day International that stood until April 2006. Gary Kirsten scored 188 not out against United Arab Emirates at Rawalpindi, Pakistan, setting a record for the highest individual score in a World Cup match which stood until 2015.

Sri Lanka won the first semi-final over India at Eden Gardens in Calcutta, in front of a crowd unofficially estimated at 110,000. After they had lost both openers cheaply, Sri Lanka launched a counter-attack, led by Aravinda de Silva, to post a strong total of 251 for the loss of 8 wickets. India began their chase promisingly but after the loss of Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian batting order collapsed. After India had slumped to 120 for 8 in the 35th over, sections of the crowd began to throw fruit and plastic bottles onto the field. The players left the field for 20 minutes in an attempt to quieten the crowd. When the players returned for play, more bottles were thrown onto the field and fires were lit in the stand. Match referee Clive Lloyd awarded the match to Sri Lanka, the first default ever in a Test or One Day International.

In the second semi-final in Mohali, Australia recovered from 15/4 to reach 207/8 from their 50 overs. The West Indians had reached 165/2 in the 42nd over before losing their last eight wickets for 37 runs in 51 balls.

Sri Lanka won the toss in the final and sent Australia in to bat despite the team batting first having won all five previous World Cup finals. Mark Taylor top scored with 74 in Australia's total of 241/7. Sri Lanka won the match in the 47th over with Aravinda de Silva following his 3 for 42 with an unbeaten 107 to win the Player of the Match award. It was the first time a tournament host or co-host had won the cricket World Cup.

A warm-up match was played between South Africa and Pakistan on 8 February 1996 in which South Africa defeated Pakistan by 65 runs.

Group stage

Group A

• This was the first time the West Indies lost an ODI to an ICC Associate.
• This was the fourth win in ODI history by an ICC Associate (all in World Cups, SL vs Ind 1979, Zim vs Aus 1983 and Zim vs Eng 1992).

Group B

• Gary Kirsten's unbeaten 188 was the highest ever individual score in a World Cup match, surpassing Viv Richards' 181* against Sri Lanka in 1987, and the second-highest ODI score of all time, one short of Richards' all-time ODI record score of 189.
• South Africa's score of 321/2 was their highest in ODIs.
• The United Arab Emirates' ninth-wicket partnership of 80* between Arshad Laeeq and Shaukat Dukanwala was the second-highest of all time.

match 4

• Peter Cantrell, Flavian Aponso, Steven Lubbers, Roland Lefebvre, Tim de Leede, Klaas-Jan van Noortwijk, Marcelis Schewe, Bastiaan Zuiderent, Eric Gouka and Paul-Jan Bakker (Ned) all made their ODI debut.
• At 47 years and 240 days, Nolan Clarke (Ned) became the oldest player to make his ODI debut.
• Stephen Fleming (NZ) took his only ODI wicket.

match 27

• Nolan Clarke (Ned), aged 47 years and 257 days, played his final ODI match, the oldest player to do so.

Knockout stage

|9 March – Faisalabad, Pakistan||235/8||236/5 |9 March – Bangalore, India||287/8||248/9 |11 March – Karachi, Pakistan||264/8||245 |11 March – Madras, India||286/9||289/4 |13 March – Calcutta, India||251/8||120/8 |14 March – Mohali, India||202||207/8 |17 March – Lahore, Pakistan|****|245/3||241/7}}

Quarter-finals

This was the last ODI which Javed Miandad played.

Semi-finals

• This was the last ODI played by Richie Richardson.

Final

Main article: 1996 Cricket World Cup Final

Statistics

Main article: 1996 Cricket World Cup statistics

References

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2. "Wills World Cup, 1995/96, Final". ESPNcricinfo.
3. (13 March 2019). "India vs Sri Lanka, Wills World Cup 1996 semifinal: A real shame". sportstar.thehindu.com.
4. "On This Day: India vs Sri Lanka 1996 World Cup - An Epic Collapse, Tearful Vinod Kambli and the Nuisance at Eden Gardens".
5. "World Cup Cricket Team Records & Stats". ESPNcricinfo.
6. Grundlingh, Albert. (2018). "Diffusion and Depiction: How Afrikaners Came to Play Cricket in Twentieth-Century South Africa". Springer International Publishing.
7. "Records / One-Day Internationals / Team records / Highest innings totals". ESPNcricinfo.
8. Chhabria, Vinay. (12 March 2020). "10 Guinness World Records held by cricket". CricTracker.
9. "ODI records – Oldest players on debut". ESPNcricinfo.
10. "Stephen Fleming's profile". ESPNcricinfo.
11. "Netherlands v South Africa – Wills World Cup 1995/96 (Group B)". CricketArchive.
12. (3 July 2008). "Help the aged". ESPNcricinfo.
13. "ODI records – Oldest players". ESPNcricinfo.
14. "Wills World Cup, 1995/96 batting most runs career Records". ESPNcricinfo.
15. "Wills World Cup, 1995/96 bowling most wickets career Records". ESPNcricinfo.