Battle for World cricket supremacy

Lionel WIJESIRI

BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY: It will be the most important event of the year for the millions of cricket fans in Sri Lanka. Tonight they will be glued to their TVs to see what the final outcome would be of the battle between their National team and Australia for the most prestigious trophy in the cricketing field.

Every four years, the Cricket World Cup tournament involves all the Test-playing nations and other national sides who qualify.

The tournament is the world’s third largest and most viewed sporting event and according to the ICC, it is the most important tournament and the pinnacle of achievement in sports.

Australia has been the most successful of the teams to have won the tournament, taking three titles. The West Indies have won twice, while India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have each won once.

Origin

One-day cricket began between English county teams on May 2, 1962. That day, Leicestershire beat Derbyshire and Northamptonshire beat Nottinghamshire over 65 overs in the “Midlands Knock-Out Cup”, which Northamptonshire went on to win a week later.

The following year, the first full-scale one-day competition between first-class teams was played, the knock-out Gillette Cup, won by Sussex.

League one-day cricket also began in England, when the John Player Sunday League was started in 1969. Both

 these competitions have continued every season since it’s inauguration, though the sponsorship has changed.

However, the first Limited Overs International (LOI) or One-Day International (ODI) match was played in Melbourne in 1971, and the quadrennial cricket World Cup began in 1975.

It was hosted in 1975 by England, the only nation able to put forward the resources to stage an event of such magnitude at that time. The first three events were held in England and officially known as the Prudential Cup after the sponsors’ Prudential plc.

Eight teams participated in the first tournament: Australia, England, the West Indies, New Zealand, India, and Pakistan (the six Test nations at the time), together with Sri Lanka and a composite team from East Africa.

One notable omission was South Africa, who was banned from international cricket due to apartheid. The tournament was won by the West Indies, who defeated Australia by 17 runs in the final at Lord’s.

The 1979 World Cup saw the introduction of the ICC Trophy competition to select non-Test playing teams for the World Cup, with Sri Lanka and Canada qualifying. West Indies won a second consecutive World Cup tournament, defeating the hosts, England, by 92 runs in the final.

At a meeting which followed the World Cup, the International Cricket Conference agreed to make the competition a quadrennial event.

The 1983 event was hosted by England for a third consecutive time. By this time, Sri Lanka had become a Test-playing nation, and Zimbabwe qualified through the ICC Trophy. A fielding circle was introduced, 30 yards away from the stumps.

Four fieldsmen needed to be inside it at all times. India, an outsider quoted at 66-1 to win by bookmakers before the competition began, were crowned champions after upsetting the West Indies by 43 runs in the final.

The 1987 tournament was held in India and Pakistan, the first time that the competition was held outside England.

The games were reduced from 60 to 50 overs per innings, the current standard, because of the shorter daylight hours in the Indian subcontinent compared with England’s summer. Australia won the championship by defeating England by 7 runs in the final.

The 1992 World Cup, held in Australia and New Zealand, introduced many changes to the game, such as coloured clothing, white balls, day/night matches, and an alteration to the fielding restrictions.

The South African cricket team participated in the event for the first time, following the fall of the apartheid

 regime and the end of the international sports boycott. Pakistan overcame a dismal start to emerge as winners, defeating England by 22 runs in the final.

The 1996 championship was held in the Indian subcontinent for a second time, with the inclusion of Sri Lanka as host for some of its group stage matches.

In the semi-final, Sri Lanka, heading towards a crushing victory over India at Eden Gardens (Calcutta) after their hosts lost eight wickets while scoring 120 runs in pursuit of 254, was awarded victory by default after riots broke out in protest against the Indian performance.

Sri Lanka went on to win their maiden championship by defeating Australia by seven wickets in the final, which was held in Lahore.

In 1999 the event was hosted by England, with some matches also being held in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Netherlands.

Australia qualified for the final after reaching their target in their Super 6 match against South Africa off the final over of the match and proceeded to the final after a tie in the semi-final (also against South Africa) in which a mix-up between South African batsmen Lance Klusener and Allan Donald saw Donald drop his bat and stranded mid-pitch to be run out.

In the final, Australia dismissed Pakistan for 132 and then reached the target in less than 20 overs, with eight wickets in hand.

South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya hosted the 2003 World Cup. The number of teams participating in the event increased from twelve to fourteen.

Kenya’s victories over Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe - and a forfeit by the New Zealand team, which refused to play in Kenya because of security concerns - enabled Kenya to reach the semi-finals, where they lost to India.

In the final, Australia made 359 runs for the loss of two wickets, the largest ever total in a final, defeating India by 125 runs.

Trophy

The current trophy is made from silver and gold, and features a golden globe held up by three silver columns.

The columns, shaped as stumps and bails, represent the three fundamental aspects of cricket: batting, bowling and fielding, while the globe characterizes a cricket ball.

The trophy is designed with platonic dimensions, so that it can be easily recognized from any angle.

It stands 60 cm high and weighs approximately 11 kilograms. The names of the previous winners are engraved on the base of the trophy, with space for a total of twenty inscriptions.

The original trophy is kept by the ICC. A replica, which differs only in the inscriptions, is permanently awarded to the winning team

Selection

The number of teams selected through the ICC Trophy has varied throughout the years.

The World Cricket League, administered by ICC, is the qualification system provided to allow the Associate and Affiliate members of the ICC more opportunities to qualify. (In 2009, the name “ICC Trophy” was changed to “ICC World Cup Qualifier”).

Under the qualifying process, all 87 Associate and Affiliate members of the ICC are able to qualify for the World Cup.

Associate and Affiliate members must play between two and five stages in the ICC World Cricket League to qualify for the World Cup finals, depending on the Division in which they start the qualifying process.

The current 2007 World Cup featured 16 teams allocated into four groups of four. Within each group, the teams played each other in a round-robin format. Teams earned points for wins and half-points for ties.

The top two teams from each group, a total of eight, moved forward to the Super 8 round. The “Super 8”

 teams played the other six teams that progressed from the different groups.

Teams earned points in the same way as the group stage, but also brought points scored against the other team who qualified from the same group to the “Super 8” stage.

The top four teams from the “Super 8” round advanced to the semi-finals. Today, the winners of the semi-finals - Sri Lanka and Australia will compete in the final.

Viewers

The tournament is televised in over 200 countries to over two billion television viewers. Television rights, mainly for the 2011 and 2015 World Cup were sold for over US$ 1.1 billion, and sponsorship rights were sold for a further US$ 500 million.

Successive World Cup tournaments have generated increasing media attention as One-Day International cricket has become more established. The 2003 World Cup in South Africa was the first to sport a mascot, Dazzler the Zebra. The 2007 Cricket World Cup features an orange raccoon-like creature named “Mello” as its mascot.

So, in another few hours, Australia will meet Sri Lanka, a repeat of the 1996 Cup final at Lahore when the islanders beat Mark Taylor’s Australians by seven wickets. Can they do it again?

On the other hand, Australia are now unbeaten in their last 28 Cup matches and are aiming to become the first team in tournament history to complete a hat-trick of titles. By tomorrow morning, we will know the answer.

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