2007 Cricket World Cup

A Caribbean World Cup

The West Indies had waited a long time for a World Cup. The region staged its first in March and April 2007, across nine grounds in eight countries, and it built or rebuilt stadiums to do it, from Sabina Park in Jamaica to new grounds in Guyana, Antigua and Trelawny. Sixteen teams took part, the most in the tournament's history, including debutants Ireland and Bermuda. They were drawn into four groups of four, and the top two in each went into a Super Eight in which every team played every other before the semi-finals.

The event was widely criticised. Ticket prices were high for local fans, rules at the grounds restricted the drums, conch shells and music that make Caribbean cricket what it is, and many matches were played in front of thin crowds. The tournament lasted 47 days, and the long group stage produced several one-sided matches. Around 672,000 spectators attended over the seven weeks.

St Patrick's Day

The first week produced the two results that shaped everything after. On 17 March in Port of Spain, Bangladesh beat India by five wickets, with three teenagers, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan, all making fifties. On the same day at Sabina Park, Ireland, a side of amateurs and county players in their first World Cup, bowled Pakistan out for 132 and won by three wickets. Their captain Trent Johnson hit the winning six, and the result came on St Patrick's Day.

India and Pakistan, the two biggest draws in world cricket and the teams on whom the organisers had counted for crowds and television audiences, were both out of the tournament within the first week. Ireland, who had already tied with Zimbabwe in their opening match, went through to the Super Eight with Pakistan's group place; Bangladesh took India's.

A death in Kingston

On the morning after Pakistan's defeat, their coach, the former England batter Bob Woolmer, was found unconscious in his room at the team hotel in Kingston and died later that day. The Jamaican police at first said he had been murdered, and the investigation hung over the tournament for weeks, with players questioned and fingerprinted. The police later concluded that he had died of natural causes, and an inquest that year returned an open verdict. The episode left the whole event under a shadow that it never really escaped.

Six sixes, and four in four

There was still remarkable cricket. In St Kitts, Herschelle Gibbs hit all six balls of an over from the Netherlands leg-spinner Daan van Bunge for six, the first time it had been done in an international match. India made 413 for five against Bermuda, the first 400 in a World Cup. In Guyana, Lasith Malinga took four wickets in four balls against South Africa with his slinging round-arm action, although South Africa still won by a single wicket. Matthew Hayden made a hundred from 66 balls against South Africa, then the fastest in World Cup history, and went on to make 659 runs, the most of the tournament.

The Super Eight

Australia went through the Super Eight without being tested. They beat everyone, and their fast bowlers, Glenn McGrath, Shaun Tait and Nathan Bracken, with the left-arm wrist-spinner Brad Hogg, took wickets in every match. Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa joined them in the semi-finals. Bangladesh beat South Africa in Guyana, a second major upset, Ireland beat Bangladesh in Barbados for their second win over a Test side, and the hosts West Indies, whose players had carried the hopes of the whole region, won only two of their Super Eight matches and went out.

The semi-finals were one-sided. In Jamaica, Mahela Jayawardene made 115 not out and Muttiah Muralitharan took four wickets as Sri Lanka beat New Zealand by 81 runs. In St Lucia, McGrath and Tait took seven wickets between them, South Africa were bowled out for 149, and Australia won by seven wickets with more than eighteen overs to spare.

The squash ball

The final at Kensington Oval in Barbados on 28 April was delayed by rain and reduced to 38 overs a side. Adam Gilchrist then played one of the greatest innings in a World Cup final. He made 149 from 104 balls, with eight sixes, and put on 172 for the first wicket with Matthew Hayden. He revealed afterwards that he had batted with a squash ball inside his left glove, a tip from his batting coach to help him hold the bat with his top hand. Australia made 281 for four.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara added 116 for the second wicket and kept Sri Lanka in touch, but once they were out the chase fell away. Rain reduced the target further, and with the light fading the umpires wrongly told both sides that the match would have to finish the next day if it stopped. Australia had already won under the Duckworth-Lewis method once 25 overs had been bowled, but play went on anyway, and the last three overs were bowled in near darkness, with the Sri Lankan batters blocking and Australia bowling spinners. Australia won by 53 runs. The match officials apologised and were suspended from the next ICC event.

The end of an era

Australia had won eleven matches out of eleven again, a third World Cup in a row and a fourth in all. Their run without a World Cup defeat, which began in May 1999, now stood at 29 matches. McGrath, who had announced that this would be his last tournament, took 26 wickets, a record for a single World Cup at the time, and was named player of the tournament.

It was the end of something too. McGrath retired, and within two years most of the side that had dominated one-day cricket for a decade had gone. The next tournament would be very different: played in the subcontinent, with a smaller field and quarter-finals, and it began a run of three tournaments in a row won by a host nation. The story continues with the 2011 World Cup.