Cricket at the 1998 Commonwealth Games

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Cricket was included in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia; this was the first (and, to date, only) time that cricket has been played at a Commonwealth Games. Matches were played over 50 overs, and had List A status, although they were not full One Day Internationals and (as is normal at the Commonwealth Games) the Caribbean islands that entered participated as separate nations, not as the combined West Indies team. Indeed, the Games were the first occasion on which an Antigua and Barbuda side competed at a senior level. Northern Ireland also entered, this occurrence being noteworthy because Irish cricket is usually represented by an all-island Irish cricket team.

Sixteen teams entered the competition, including seven of the nine then Test-playing nations: West Indies did not enter as mentioned above, while England declined to send a team at all, on the grounds that the September date chosen clashed with other fixtures such as the end of the County Championship. The strength of the teams that were entered varied somewhat: Australia sent a high-quality squad packed with Test and ODI regulars while India and Pakistan sent weakened teams as a result of a clash with the 1998 Sahara Cup. South Africa were also rather below full strength; nevertheless, it was the South Africans who eventually came away with the gold medal.

Contents

[edit] Competition format

All matches were played at one of six grounds in Kuala Lumpur. The 16 teams were divided into four groups of four on a seeded basis. Each team played the other three once in matches packed into a single week between 9 September and 15 September, scoring two points for a win, one for a no-result and none for a loss. The top team in each group went forward to the knock-out stages of semi-finals and final (plus a third-place play-off). Teams with equal numbers of points were separated on net run rate, but in the event this rule was only needed to decide the minor placings.

[edit] Teams

[edit] Group stages

[edit] Group A

Sri Lanka won all three of their games to qualify for the semi-finals. A straightforward seven-wicket victory over Malaysia (who collapsed from 87/3 to 109ao; Sri Lanka reached 112/3) was followed by a 67-run win over Jamaica with Gunawardene hitting 107 (Sri Lanka 211/5; Jamaica 144/8), before a thrilling decider against Zimbabwe. The Africans reached 265/7 (Campbell 82, Goodwin 55), in reply to which Sri Lanka stumbled to 110/5 before Hathurusingha (60) and de Saram (75*) brought them close to victory at 258/6. Streak then took three quick wickets, but the last pair survived to give Sri Lanka a one-wicket win.

In the other Group A games, Zimbabwe (144/4) beat Jamaica (142ao) by six wickets thanks in large measure to an unbeaten 55 from Evans, then piled up 309/9 (Flower 70, Evans 59, Goodwin 53) as they crushed a poor Malaysia side (88ao; Nkala 3-6) by 221 runs. The wooden spoon game saw Malaysia crumble to 83ao thanks to 4-13 from Cunningham and lose by six wickets to Jamaica (87/4).

[edit] Group B

Australia scored three wins out of three in this group. First came a nine wicket demolition of Canada who could muster just 60ao (Fleming 4-17); the Australians made 61/1 in 14 overs. Then followed another Fleming masterclass: he took 5-24 as Antigua and Barbuda were dismissed for 99; Australia made 101/3 in reply. Finally came the heavyweight clash against India, but despite the Indians reducing their opponents to 84/5, 100 from Steve Waugh and 78* from Moody contributed to a total of 255/5 that proved far too much as India stuttered to 109ao.

Antigua and Barbuda put up 164/9 (a recovery from 77/7) in a 41-over match against India, but the rain fell again with India 30/2 in reply and the match was declared a no-result. India were dependent on Khurasiya's 83 against Canada - no other batsman passed 22 - but their 157/9 turned out to be well sufficient as their opponents fell apart, Kumble claiming 4-11 as the Canadians were humiliatingly dismissed for 45. Antigua and Barbuda (256/7) beat Canada (135ao) thanks to a fine all-round display from Lake, who made 54 before retiring hurt and then took 4-17; Walsh also made 51 for the Antiguans.

[edit] Group C

Honours in this group went to South Africa, who started off against Northern Ireland. The Irish had reached 89/5 from 38.1 overs when it rained, and the Duckworth-Lewis method was used to calculate a target of 131 from 38 overs for the South Africans, who won by making 133/6. South Africa then bowled out Bangladesh for a paltry 79 and made 80/5 for a five-wicket victory, before rounding things off against Barbados. The Barbadians set a useful 254/6 (Wallace 74), but 71 from Kallis and 54 from Gibbs saw their opponents through to 257/6 with ten balls remaining.

Barbados (160/6 in 41.3ov) beat Bangladesh (144/7 in 47ov, Shahriar Hossain 70*) under the Duckworth-Lewis method, then destroyed Northern Ireland by 176 runs. Scores of 92 from Wallace, 66 from Griffith and 60 from Campbell contributed to a daunting 296/5 which the Irish never got anywhere near despite Smyth's 58, instead crawling to just 120/7. However, Northern Ireland came back well to beat Bangladesh by 114 runs: the Irish made a creditable 177 (McCallan 53) before Cooke ran through the Bangladeshi order, taking 5-35 as they were dismissed for 63.

[edit] Group D

One-day specialists New Zealand won all their matches in Group D, beginning with a comfortable five-wicket win over Kenya (Kenya 144/8; New Zealand 145/5) before an even more straightforward success against Scotland. The New Zealanders amassed 278/6 (Fleming 102, Parore 87), then Harris took 4-25 as Scotland could manage only 101 all out. Finally the Kiwis won the crunch match against Pakistan by 81 runs: New Zealand's 215/8 was boosted by 66 from Fleming despite Shoaib Akhtar's 4-47, but only three Pakistanis (and Extras) reached double figures as they lost their last six wickets for 21 runs, being bowled out for 134 to slide to an 81-run defeat.

Pakistan had earlier been frustrated by rain against Scotland; they had scored 201/5 from their 50 overs (Akhtar Sarfraz 66*) and had reduced the Scots to 31/3 when the weather intervened. The Pakistanis did beat Kenya, however: Odoyo's 4-39 had restricted them to 189/8, but Arshad Khan's 4-14 and Javed Qadeer's five catches behind the stumps helped Pakistan to a 129-run win as they dismissed the Africans for only 60. Odumbe took 5-38 as Kenya kept Scotland down to 156/8; they then made 157/5 to win with 12.3 overs in hand.

[edit] Final group tables

Teams highlighted in yellow qualified for the semi-finals.

Group A
Pos Team P W L NR RR Pts
1 Sri Lanka 3 3 0 0 1.581 6
2 Zimbabwe 3 2 1 0 1.887 4
3 Jamaica 3 1 2 0 −0.122 2
4 Malaysia 3 0 3 0 −3.736 0
Group B
Pos Team P W L NR RR Pts
1 Australia 3 3 0 0 3.299 6
2 Antigua and Barbuda 3 1 1 1 0.079 3
3 India 3 1 1 1 −0.340 3
4 Canada 3 0 0 3 −2.558 0
Group C
Pos Team P W L NR RR Pts
1 South Africa 3 3 0 0 1.443 6
2 Barbados 3 2 1 0 1.433 4
3 Northern Ireland 3 1 2 0 −0.943 2
4 Bangladesh 3 0 0 3 −1.649 0
Group D
Pos Team P W L NR RR Pts
1 New Zealand 3 3 0 0 1.799 6
2 Pakistan 3 1 1 1 0.480 3
3 Kenya 3 1 2 0 −0.697 2
4 Scotland 3 0 2 1 −2.401 1

[edit] Semi-finals

[edit] South Africa v Sri Lanka

A low-scoring game produced a thrilling climax. Gunawardene's 53 held the Sri Lankan innings together after they had been put in to bat by the South Africans, but Boje's 4-16 kept the Sri Lankans' score down to a distinctly unimpressive 130 as they were bowled out in 44 overs. In reply, South Africa lost wickets at regular intervals, with the highest score being opener Rindel's 25. At 96/9 all looked lost, but then Boje (20*) and Dawson (15*) compiled an unbroken stand of 35 for the last wicket to lead their team to 131/9 and a one-wicket victory.

[edit] Australia v New Zealand

A totally one-sided trans-Tasman clash saw New Zealand collapse to a feeble 58 all out after being sent in, with only captain Fleming reaching 20. Australian slow left-armer Brad Young took a hat-trick to finish with an exceptional analysis of 4-2-4-4. In reply, the Australians rattled along at nearly six an over, losing only Mark Waugh as they raced to 62/1 in 10.5 overs with Gilchrist smashing three sixes as he hit 42 from 36 balls.

[edit] Third-place play-off

[edit] New Zealand v Sri Lanka

New Zealand recovered from the trauma of their semi-final thrashing to beat Sri Lanka by 51 runs. 56* from Harris and 56 from Astle were the main elements of a final total of 212/7 that included three run-outs. The Sri Lankans struggled to 77/7 in their innings, and though they added 53 for the eighth wicket thanks to Perera's 45, it was never likely to be enough and they were bowled out for 161.

[edit] Final

[edit] Australia v South Africa

Put in by South Africa, the Australians were indebted to Steve Waugh's unbeaten 90 as they recovered from 58/4 to post a still below-par 183 all out. Pollock was the chief destroyer for South Africa, with 4-19 from nine tight overs to remove Mark Waugh, Ponting, Gilchrist and Lehmann. South Africa got off to a good start in their reply with an opening partnership of 73 between Rindel (67) and Hudson (36). A burst of wickets from Lehmann (3-14) saw the South Africans wobble as they fell from 158/2 to 183/6, but it was too late for Australia and Kallis' watchful 44 from 96 balls saw South Africa through to 184/6 and the gold medal.

[edit] Legacy

The tournament was not considered a success, and cricket was missing from the 2002 games in Manchester and the 2006 games in Melbourne. It had been hoped that a Twenty20 tournament could be included at the 2010 games in Delhi, but the BCCI was not keen on a Twenty20 tournament. Now with the imense success of IPL the board is seriouly considering at-20 tournamnet in the commonweath games [1] The president of the Commonwealth Games federation wants to bring cricket back into the games, and the Glasgow bid for the 2014 games has indicated that they would include cricket. [2]


Cricket at multi-sport events
Olympic Games: 1900, Paris, France
Commonwealth Games: 1998, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
South Pacific Games: 2003, Suva, Fiji | 2007, Apia, Samoa