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The teams plus individual stats covering the last three years.


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Marcus Hook’s reflections on the tournament, day by day – updated regularly.


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Marcus blows the dust off his 1999 World Cup diary.


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HOW THE TOURNAMENT WORKS

The 2003 World Cup will run for 44 days from the Opening Ceremony in Cape Town on 8 February 8 to the final in Johannesburg on 23 March. There will be a total of 54 cricket matches - a record for the ICC Cricket World Cup. All games will be day games, except in Cape Town and Durban where all games (five at each venue) will be day-night games.

14 teams will play each other in the preliminary or pool section on a round robin basis. There will be 42 of these matches played over 24 days. The top three teams from each pool will proceed to the next stage of the tournament, known as the Super Sixes, carrying with them the points scored in matches against the other qualifying teams in their pool. The Super Sixes will be played over a period of nine days during which there will be two days on which no matches will be played and two days on which there will be two matches per day (one of which will be a day game and the other a day-night game).

The Super Sixes will determine the four teams that will contest the semi-finals - a day game in Port Elizabeth on 18 March and a day-night game in Durban on 20 March. In the semi-finals, Team 1 in the Super Sixes will play Team 4 and Team 2 in the Super Sixes will meet Team 3.

The matches in South Africa will be staged in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Centurion, Bloemfontein, Paarl, Potchefstroom, East London, Benoni, Kimberley and Pietermaritzburg. Games in Zimbabwe will be staged at Harare and Bulawayo. Kenya will stage the two remaining fixtures at Nairobi.

THE PLAYING CONDITIONS

1. The following points system will apply:

Win 4
Tie or no result 2
Loss 0

2. Group Matches

In the event of teams finishing on equal points in either Group, the right to play in the Super Six stage will be decided in the following order of priority:

  • The most wins in the Group Matches.
  • When two teams have both equal points and equal wins, the team which was the winner of the Group Match played between them will be placed in the higher position.
  • When more than two teams have equal points and equal wins, the team which was the winner of most number of matches played between those teams will be placed in the higher position.
  • If still equal, the team with the higher net run rate in the Group matches will be placed in the higher position (refer to 6. below for the calculation of net run rate).
  • If still equal, the team with the higher number of wickets taken per balls bowled in the Group
  • Matches in which results were achieved will be placed in the higher position.
  • In the highly unlikely event that teams cannot be separated by the above this will be done by drawing lots.

3. Super Six Matches

The six teams that qualify for the Super Six phase carry forward the points that they have gained in the Group Matches as follows:

  • Win v other qualifiers - 4 points each (Tie or no result – 2 points each)
  • Win v non-qualifiers - 1 point each (Tie or no result – ˝ point each)

The points carried forward by each team are added to those they gain in the Super Six Matches, to form the Super Six league table.

In the event of teams finishing on equal points at the end of the Super Six stage, the right to play in the Semi-final will be decided in the following order of priority:

  • The most wins in all of the matches throughout the competition against the other Super Six qualifiers.
  • When two teams have both equal points and equal wins, the team which was the winner of the matched played between them (in either the Group or Super Six Matches) will be placed in the higher position.
  • When more than two teams have equal points and equal wins, the team which was the winner of the most number of matches played between those teams (in both the Group and Super Six Matches) will be placed in the higher position.
  • If still equal, the team with the higher net run rate in all matches played against the other Super Six qualifiers (in both the Group and Super Six Matches) will be placed in the higher position (refer to 6. below for calculation of net run rate).
  • If still equal, the team with the higher number of wickets taken per balls bowled in all of the matches throughout the competition against the other Super Six qualifiers in which results were achieved, will be placed in the higher position.
  • In the highly unlikely event that teams cannot be separated by the above this will be done by drawing lots.

4. Semi Final

If a Semi-final is tied or there is a no result, the team that finished higher at the end of the Super Six phase as decided by clause 3. shall proceed to the Final.

5. Final

In the event of a tied Final or if there is no result in the three days allocated, the World Cup and prize money will be shared by the finalists.

6. Net Run Rate

For the purpose of 2. above, a team’s net run rate is calculated by deducting from the average runs per over scored by that team throughout the group matches, the average runs per over scored against that team throughout the group matches.

For the purpose of 3. above, a team’s net run rate is calculated by deducting from the average runs per over scored by that team in all matches played against the Super Six qualifiers, the average runs per over scored against that team in all such matches.

In the event of a team being all out in less than its full quota of overs, the calculation of its net run rate shall be based on the full quota of overs to which it would have been entitled and not on the number of overs in which the team was dismissed.

Only those matches where results are achieved will count for the purpose of net run rate calculations. Where a match is abandoned, but a result is achieved under Duckworth/Lewis, for net run rate purposes Team 1 will be accredited with Team 2’s Par Score on abandonment off the same number of overs faced by Team 2. Where a match is concluded but with Duckworth/Lewis having been applied at an earlier point in the match, Team 1 will be accredited with 1 run less that the final Target Score for Team 2 off the total number of overs allocated to Team 2 to reach the target.

PRE-TOURNAMENT ODDS

To win the World Cup Tournament's top run-maker Tournament's leading wicket-taker
Australia 6/4   ML Hayden 9/1 B Lee 8/1  
South Africa 12/5   RT Ponting 10/1 GD McGrath 10/1  
India 9/1   HH Gibbs 12/1 SK Warne 10/1  
Pakistan 9/1   SR Tendulkar 16/1 SM Pollock 12/1  
West Indies 10/1   AC Gilchrist 16/1 M Ntini 14/1  
New Zealand 12/1   V Sehwag 16/1 JN Gillespie 16/1  
England 16/1   JH Kallis 20/1 M Muralitharan 16/1  
Sri Lanka 16/1   MP Vaughan 20/1 SE Bond 20/1  
Zimbabwe 100/1   MS Atapattu 20/1 Shoaib Akhtar 20/1  
Kenya 500/1   G Kirsten 20/1 AA Donald 20/1  
Bangladesh 1000/1   BC Lara 20/1 Waqar Younis 22/1  
Canada 5000/1   CH Gayle 20/1 M Dillon 22/1  
Holland 5000/1   ST Jayasuriya 22/1 AR Caddick 25/1  
Namibia 5000/1   Yousuf Youhana 25/1 Wasim Akram 28/1  
N Astle 25/1 DR Tuffey 28/1  
SC Ganguly 25/1 Z Khan 33/1  
NV Knight 28/1 Saqlain Mushtaq 33/1  
RR Sarwan 28/1 H Singh 33/1  
A Flower 28/1 JM Anderson 33/1  
Saleem Elahi 28/1 VC Drakes 40/1  
ME Trescothick 33/1 PT Collins 40/1  
DR Martyn 33/1 JH Kallis 40/1  
Inzamam-ul-Haq 33/1 CRD Fernando 40/1  
R Dravid 33/1 J Srinath 40/1  
SP Fleming 33/1 AJ Bichel 40/1
HH Dippenaar 33/1  
MG Bevan 40/1  
DPMDS Jayawardene 40/1  

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