History of the ICC Cricket World Cup: West Indies’ performance (Part 3)
To read part 2 of this article, please click
http://www.senore.com/History-of-the-ICC-Cricket-World-Cup-West-Indies-performance-Part-2-a53892.
1996: The West Indies team was surrounded by controversy even before the 1996 tournament began. The team refused to travel to Sri Lanka (who were the co-hosts of the tournament with Pakistan and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750) for the
group stage match between the two teams. Australia also declined to play their match in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758. Both teams cited security issues for refusing to play in the country.
West Indies barely managed to scrape through the group stages despite losing 3 of their 5 matches. They came fourth ahead of only Kenya and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 and India. Hence they qualified
for the quarterfinal stages of the competition to face a strong South African team.
West Indies batted first in the quarterfinal and piled up an impressive total of 264/8 with Brian Lara scoring 111 from 94 balls. The Proteas’ reply was less than satisfactory and the whole team was bundled out for 245 as West
Indies qualified for the semi-finals for the first time since the 1983 competition.
West Indies were to ball first in the semi-final against Australia and the bowlers delivered remarkably well as the Men Down Under were restricted to 207/8 in their 50 overs. The Caribbean team started the run chase well and looked
in control throughout the innings before Shane Warne began his magic. Warne triggered a collapse in the West Indies batting line-up and the team was dismissed in the final over of their innings for 202 runs. The leg-spinner ended up with figures of 4 wickets
for 36 runs.
1999: The 1999 World Cup was staged in England once again. In all the previous 3 occasions the tournament was held on English soil, West Indies had made it to the final; winning the trophy twice. However, this
time around they were eliminated in the first round. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 had won 3 of their 5 matches but the Caribbean team was knocked
out due to a lower net run-rate compared to the other two teams.
2003: The 2003 tournament was held in Africa for the first time with the main hosts being http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757. West Indies failed to make an impact on the tournament and were once again eliminated in the group stages.
Their fate in the tournament, however, did not reflect their performance in the competition. They won 3 of the 6 group stage matches while losing only 2, and 1 match, against Bangladesh, ended without any result. The match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 was abandoned
due to rain interruption and the points lost from that particular match cost the West Indies a berth in the Super Eight stages. West Indies ended the group with 14 points while http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kenya-c752 and New Zealand went through with 16 points; Sri Lanka qualified with 18
points.
2007: The 9th edition of the World Cup was played on the Caribbean islands for the first time. It was expected that West Indies, being the host nation, might end up producing a long-awaited high quality
performance in a World Cup.
The home side cruised past the group stages unbeaten but failed miserably in the Super Eight stages. They managed only 2 wins in the 7 matches of the Super Eight round which came against the low-rated sides Bangladesh and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751.
West Indies hence failed to qualify for the semi-final for the third consecutive time.
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