The 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup, also branded as England '99, was the seventh edition of the Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted primarily by England, with selected matches also played in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands. The tournament was won by Australia, who beat Pakistan by 8 wickets in the final at Lord's in London.
The tournament was hosted three years after the previous Cricket World Cup, deviating from the usual four-year gap.
Format It featured 12 teams, playing a total of 42 matches. In the group stage, the teams were divided into two groups of six; each team played all the others in their group once. The top three teams from each group advanced to the Super Sixes, a new concept for the 1999 World Cup; each team carried forward the points from the games against the other qualifiers from their group and then played each of the qualifiers from the other group (in other words, each qualifier from Group A played each qualifier from Group B and vice versa). The top four teams in the Super Sixes advanced to the semi-finals.
Qualification
The 1999 World Cup featured 12 teams, which was the same as the previous edition in 1996. The hosts England and the eight other test nations earned automatic qualification to the World Cup. The remaining three spots were decided at the 1997 ICC Trophy in Malaysia.
22 nations competed in the 1997 edition of the ICC Trophy. After going through two group stages, the semi-finals saw Kenya and Bangladesh qualify through to the World Cup. Scotland would be the third nation to qualify as they defeated Ireland in the third-place playoff. TeamMethod of qualificationFinals appearancesLast appearancePrevious best performanceGroupHosts7th1996Runners-up AFull member7th1996Champions B7th1996Champions A7th1996Semi-finals B7th1996Champions )B3rd1996Semi-finals A7th1996Champions )A7th1996Champions )B5th1996Group stage A1997 ICC Trophy winner1st—DebutB1997 ICC Trophy runner-up2nd1996Group stage )A1997 ICC Trophy third place1st—DebutB
Venues
England VenueCityCapacityMatchesEdgbaston Cricket GroundBirmingham, West Midlands21,0003County Cricket GroundBristol8,0002St Lawrence GroundCanterbury, Kent15,000 1County Cricket GroundChelmsford, Essex6,5002Riverside GroundChester-le-Street, County Durham15,0002County Cricket GroundDerby, Derbyshire9,5001County Cricket GroundHove, Sussex7,0001HeadingleyLeeds, West Yorkshire17,5003Grace RoadLeicester, Leicestershire12,0002Lord'sLondon, Greater London28,0003The OvalLondon, Greater London25,5003Old TraffordManchester, Greater Manchester22,0003County Cricket GroundNorthampton, Northamptonshire6,5002Trent BridgeNottingham, Nottinghamshire17,5003County Cricket GroundSouthampton, Hampshire6,5002County Cricket GroundTaunton, Somerset6,5002New RoadWorcester, Worcestershire4,5002
Outside England Scotland played two of their Group B matches in their home country becoming the first associate nation to host games in a World Cup. One Group B match was played in Wales and Ireland respectively, while one Group A match was played in the Netherlands.
VenueCityCapacityMatchesSophia Gardens Cardiff, Wales15,6531The Grange Club Edinburgh, Scotland3,000 2Clontarf Cricket Club Ground Dublin, Ireland3,200 1VRA Cricket Ground Amstelveen, Netherlands4,500 1
Squads
Group stage
Pool A PosTeamPldWLNRTNRRPtsPCF1541000.86822532001.28603532000.0264453200−0.336N/A552300−0.814N/A650500−1.200N/A
Pool B PosTeamPldWLNRTNRRPtsPCF1541000.51842532000.73603532000.58624532000.506N/A552300−0.524N/A650500−1.930N/A
Super Six Teams who qualified for the Super Six stage only played against the teams from the other group; results against the other teams from the same group were carried forward to this stage. Results against the non-qualifying teams were therefore discarded at this point.
As a result of League match losses against New Zealand and Pakistan, even though Australia finished second in their group, they progressed to the Super Six stage with no points carried forward (PCF). India faced similar circumstances, finishing 2nd in their group but carrying forward 0 points after losing to fellow qualifiers Zimbabwe and South Africa.
During their super six clash, Pakistan and India were officially at war at the time of their match, the only time this has ever happened in the history of the sport.
Points carried forward (PCF)ResultsAgainst qualified teamsWin2 pointsNo result / tie1 pointsLoss0 point
PosTeamPldWLNRTNRRPtsPCF1532000.65642532000.36603532000.1762452210−0.5252552210−0.7954651400−0.1520Source: Cricinfo
Semi-finals
Australia progressed to the final because they finished higher in the Super Six table than South Africa due to having won their head to head Super Six match.1999 World Cup Playing Conditions - "When two teams have both equal points and equal wins, the team which was the winner of the match played between them (in either the Group or Super Six Matches) will be placed in the higher position.". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
Final
Statistics
+Leading run scorers Runs Player Country 461 Rahul Dravid 398 Steve Waugh 379 Sourav Ganguly 375 Mark Waugh 368 Saeed Anwar
+Leading wicket takers Wickets Player Country 20 Geoff Allott 20 Shane Warne 18 Glenn McGrath 17 Lance Klusener 17 Saqlain Mushtaq
Match balls
A new type of cricket ball, the white 'Duke', was introduced for the first time in the 1999 World Cup. British Cricket Balls Ltd claimed that the balls behaved identically to the balls used in previous World Cups, experiments showed they were harder and swung more.
Media
The host broadcasters for television coverage of the tournament were Sky and BBC Television. In the UK, live games were divided between the broadcasters, with both screening the final live. This was to be BBC's last live cricket coverage during that summer, with all of England's home Test series being shown on Channel 4 or Sky from 1999 onwards; the BBC did not show any live cricket again until August 2020.
References and notes
External links in CricketFundas Cricket World Cup 1999 from Cricinfo