Cricket at the 1998 Commonwealth Games

Cricket at the 1998 Commonwealth Games

Dates	9 September – 19 September 1998
Administrator(s)	Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF)
Cricket format	List A (50 overs-a-side)
Tournament format(s)	Single round-robin & playoffs
Host(s)	Malaysia
Champions	South Africa (1st title)
Runners-up	Australia
Participants	16
Matches	28
Most runs	Avishka Gunawardene (234)
Most wickets	Damien Fleming (14)

Medalists
South Africa     Australia     New Zealand
2022  →

Cricket was included in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia. This was the only time cricket was played at a Commonwealth Games until a women's tournament was included in the 2022 Commonwealth Games. ^[1] Matches were played over 50 overs, and had List A status rather than full One Day Internationals. As is normal at the multisports events, 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. Strong squads including seasoned Test and ODI players were fielded by the three nations that eventually won medals: Bronze medalists New Zealand with Stephen Fleming and Daniel Vettori, silver medalists Australia with Steve and Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Damien Fleming and Darren Lehmann and gold medalists South Africa with Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini, Mark Boucher, and Herschelle Gibbs. ^{[2] [3] [4]} India and Pakistan sent weakened teams as a result of a clash with the 1998 Sahara Cup, although India still named Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and VVS Laxman in its Commonwealth team while Pakistan included Shoaib Akhtar and Arshad Khan. Other notable cricketers who took part in the Commonwealth tournament included Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene, Zimbabwe's Andy Flower and the West Indies' Curtly Ambrose and Richie Richardson, playing for their home country of Antigua and Barbuda under the Commonwealth format.

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, with this round robin restricted to a single week between 9 September and 15 September. Teams scored 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.

Officials

A total of 16 Umpires and 6 Match Referees were selected for the tournament.

Umpires		Match Referees
Javed Akhtar (Pakistan)	Rudi Koertzen (South Africa)	Ebrahim Braima Isaccs (South Africa)
Beattie Arlow (Ireland)	Syed Mahabubullah (Bangladesh)	John Reid (New Zealand)
Saleem Badar (Pakistan)	Subhash Modi (Kenya)	Hanumant Singh (India)
Nizam Baksh (Canada)	Eddie Nicholls (West Indies)	Cammie Smith (West Indies)
Steve Bucknor (West Indies)	David Orchard (South Africa)	Peter van der Merwe (South Africa)
K.T. Francis (Sri Lanka)	V.K.Ramaswamy (India)	Sidath Wettimuny (Sri Lanka)
Darrell Hair (Australia)	William Smith (Scotland)
Ismail Khan (Malaysia)	Russell Tiffin (Zimbabwe)

Teams

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Sri Lanka	Australia	South Africa	New Zealand
Zimbabwe	Antigua and Barbuda	Barbados	Pakistan
Jamaica	India	Northern Ireland	Kenya
Malaysia	Canada	Bangladesh	Scotland

Squads

The following squads were named ahead of the tournament:

Group A
Jamaica [5]	Malaysia [6]	Sri Lanka [7]	Zimbabwe [8]
Jimmy Adams (c) Gareth Breese Andre Coley (wk) Ryan Cunningham Leon Garrick Wavell Hinds Nehemiah Perry Kirk Powell Tony Powell Franklyn Rose Robert Samuels Audley Sanson Laurie Williams Carl Wright	Ramesh Menon (c) Chew Pok Cheong Siswanto Haidi Rakesh Madhavan Marimuthu Muniandy Jeevandran Nair Suresh Navaratnam Venu Ramadass Shankar Retinam (wk) Rohan Selvaratnam Rohan Suppiah David Thalalla Santhara Vello Matthew William	Hashan Tillakaratne (c) Russel Arnold Upul Chandana Indika de Saram Lanka de Silva (wk) Indika Gallage Avishka Gunawardene Chandika Hathurusingha Pradeep Hewage Mahela Jayawardene (vc) Suresh Perera Thilan Samaraweera Mario Villavarayan Malinda Warnapura	Alistair Campbell (c) Eddo Brandes Gary Brent Craig Evans Andy Flower (wk) Grant Flower Murray Goodwin Adam Huckle Pommie Mbangwa Mluleki Nkala Paul Strang Heath Streak Andy Whittall Craig Wishart
Group B
Antigua and Barbuda [9]	Australia [10]	Canada [11]	India [12]
Dave Joseph (c) Curtly Ambrose Hamish Anthony Eldine Baptiste Kenny Benjamin Winston Benjamin Wilden Cornwall Ridley Jacobs (wk) Sylvester Joseph Anthony Lake Richie Richardson Ian Tittle Earl Waldron Hayden Walsh	Steve Waugh (c) Mark Waugh (vc) Michael Bevan Andy Bichel Damien Fleming Adam Gilchrist (wk) Brendon Julian Michael Kasprowicz Darren Lehmann Damien Martyn Tom Moody Ricky Ponting Gavin Robertson Brad Young	Ingleton Liburd (c) Varadarajan Anand George Codrington Muneeb Diwan Derick Etwaroo Joe Harris Nigel Isaacs Davis Joseph Paul Prashad Brian Rajadurai Danny Ramnarais (wk) Barry Seebaran Sanjayan Thuraisingam	Ajay Jadeja (c) Anil Kumble (vc) Nikhil Chopra Rohan Gavaskar Harbhajan Singh Gagan Khoda Amay Khurasiya VVS Laxman Paras Mhambrey Debasis Mohanty M. S. K. Prasad (wk) Rahul Sanghvi Robin Singh Sachin Tendulkar
Group C
Bangladesh [13]	Barbados [14]	Northern Ireland [15]	South Africa [16]
Akram Khan (c) Aminul Islam Azam Iqbal Faruque Ahmed Hasibul Hossain Khaled Mahmud Khaled Mashud (wk) Mohammad Rafique Morshed Ali Khan Mushfiqur Rahman Naimur Rahman Shafiuddin Ahmed Shahriar Hossain Sabbir Khan Sanwar Hossain (standby) Zakir Hasan (standby)	Philo Wallace (c) Hendy Bryan Sherwin Campbell Pedro Collins Vasbert Drakes Ottis Gibson Adrian Griffith Ryan Hinds Roland Holder Ricky Hoyte (wk) Mark Lavine Winston Reid Horace Walrond	Alan Rutherford (c & wk) Neil Anderson Neil Carson Gordon Cooke Dekker Curry Ryan Eagleson Peter Gillespie Derek Heasley Kyle McCallan Paul McCrum Gary Neely Andrew Patterson Mark Patterson Stephen Smyth	Shaun Pollock (c) Alan Dawson Andrew Hudson Dale Benkenstein Derek Crookes Henry Williams Herschelle Gibbs Jacques Kallis Makhaya Ntini Mark Boucher (wk) Michael Rindel Nicky Boje Paul Adams Steve Elworthy Adam Bacher Lance Klusener
Group D
Kenya [17]	New Zealand [18]	Pakistan [19]	Scotland [20]
Aasif Karim (c) Sandeep Gupta Edward Mboya Hitesh Modi Thomas Odoyo Maurice Odumbe Kennedy Otieno (wk) Ravindu Shah Tony Suji Martin Suji Steve Tikolo Alpesh Vadher	Stephen Fleming (c) Geoff Allott Nathan Astle Mark Bailey Matthew Bell Chris Drum Chris Harris Matt Horne Craig McMillan Dion Nash Shayne O'Connor Adam Parore (wk) Daniel Vettori Paul Wiseman	Arshad Khan (c) Akhtar Sarfraz Asif Mahmood Azhar Shafiq Javed Qadeer (wk) Kashif Ahmed Mohammad Hussain Mohammad Javed Saleem Elahi Shahid Nazir Shoaib Akhtar Suleman Huda Taimur Khan Wajahatullah Wasti	George Salmond (c) Mike Allingham John Blain James Brinkley Stephen Crawley Alec Davies (wk) Nick Dyer Dougie Lockhart Drew Parsons Bruce Patterson Keith Sheridan Ian Stanger Greig Williamson Craig Wright

Group stages

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 109 all out; 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 decider against Zimbabwe. The Africans reached 265/7 (Campbell 82, Goodwin 55); in reply, 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 (142 all out) by six wickets, with an unbeaten 55 from Evans. Zimbabwe then scored 309/9 (Flower 70, Evans 59, Goodwin 53) as they crushed Malaysia (88 all out; Nkala 3–6) by 221 runs. The wooden spoon game saw Malaysia crumble to 83 all out thanks to 4–13 from Cunningham, losing by six wickets to Jamaica (87/4).

Group B

Australia scored three wins out of three in this group. First came a nine wicket win over Canada who scored only 60 all out (Fleming 4–17); the Australians made 61/1 in 14 overs. In their second match, Antigua and Barbuda were dismissed for 99; Australia made 101/3 in reply. Finally, against India, Australia scored a total of 255/5, followed by India who stuttered to 109 all out.

Antigua and Barbuda scored 164/9 (a recovery from 77/7) in a 41-over match against India, but rain fell with India 30/2 in reply and the match was declared a no-result. India's Khurasiya scored 83 against Canada in a total of 157/9, with Kumble then claiming 4–11 as the Canadians were dismissed for 45. Antigua and Barbuda (256/7) beat Canada (135 all out), with Lake making 54 before retiring hurt and then taking 4–17; Walsh also made 51 for the Antiguans.

Group C

Honours in this group went to South Africa, who started off against Northern Ireland. The Northern 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 79 and made 80/5 for a five-wicket victory. In South Africa's final match, Barbados set 254/6 (Wallace 74), but 71 from Kallis and 54 from Gibbs saw their opponents make 257/6 with ten balls remaining.

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

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.

Final group tables

Teams highlighted in yellow qualified for the semi-finals.

Pos	Team	P	W	L	NR	NRR	Pts
Group A
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
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	3	0	−2.558	0
Group C
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	3	0	−1.649	0
Group D
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
Source: ESPN Cricinfo [21]

Knockout stage (Medal round)

	Semi-finals				Final
	16 September – Kuala Lumpur (PKNS)
	South Africa	131/9
					19 September – Kuala Lumpur (PKNS)
	Sri Lanka	130
					South Africa	184/6
	17 September – Kuala Lumpur (Tenaga)
					Australia	183
	Australia	62/1
	New Zealand	58
					Third place
					18 September – Kuala Lumpur (Tenaga)
					Sri Lanka	161
					New Zealand	212/7

Semi-finals

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.

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 bowling 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 and won easily.

17 September Scorecard

New Zealand   58 (26.4 overs)	v	Australia 62/1 (10.5 overs)
Stephen Fleming 20 Brad Young 4/4 (4 overs)		Adam Gilchrist 42* Alex Tait 1/17 (5 overs)

Australia won by 9 wickets Tenaga National Sports Complex, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Umpires: Dave Orchard (SA) & VK Ramaswamy (IND)

• Australia won the toss and elected to field.

Bronze-medal match

New Zealand recovered from the trauma of their semi-final thrashing to beat Sri Lanka by 51 runs. 56 not out 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.

18 September Scorecard

New Zealand   212/7 (50 overs)	v	Sri Lanka 161 (44.4 overs)
Chris Harris 56* Russel Arnold 1/27 (10 overs)		Suresh Perera 45 Daniel Vettori 3/33 (10 overs)

New Zealand won by 51 runs Tenaga National Sports Complex, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (SA) & Saleem Badar (PAK)

• Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field.

Gold-medal match

Put in by South Africa after losing the toss, the Australians were indebted to captain Steve Waugh's unbeaten 90 as they recovered from 58/4 to post a still below-par 183 all out. Opposing captain 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 the Proteas did not lose another wicket and Kallis' watchful 44 from 96 balls saw South Africa through to 184/6 and the gold medal with four overs to spare.

19 September Scorecard

Australia   183 (49.3 overs)	v	South Africa 184/6 (46 overs)
Steve Waugh 90* (109) Shaun Pollock 4/19 (9 overs)		Michael Rindel 67 (106) Darren Lehmann 3/14 (4 overs)

South Africa won by 4 wickets Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor Sports Complex, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Umpires: Steve Bucknor (WI) & KT Francis (SL)

• South Africa won the toss and elected to field.
• The crowd of 7,532 was the largest recorded crowd for a cricket match in Malaysia.
• This marked the first championship for South Africa at an ICC global event or a global multi-sport event. However, the matches did not have ODI status.

Final standings

1.   South Africa
2.   Australia
3.   New Zealand
4.   Sri Lanka
5.   Zimbabwe
6.   Barbados
7.   Pakistan
8.   Antigua and Barbuda
9.   India
10.   Jamaica
11.   Kenya
12.   Northern Ireland
13.   Scotland
14.   Bangladesh
15.   Canada
16.   Malaysia

Legacy

Gold medal-winning South African captain Pollock praised the Commonwealth experience while recalling his time at the Games for Cricinfo. ^[22]

The success of the IPL led to a T20 tournament in the Commonwealth Games and later the Olympics being considered. ^[23] The president of the Commonwealth Games federation wanted to bring cricket back into the games, and the Glasgow bid for the 2014 games had indicated that they would include cricket, but it did not materialise. The ICC then rejected an offer for cricket to feature in the 2018 games on the Gold Coast, ^[24] but a T20 women's tournament was held at Edgbaston for the 2022 games in Birmingham.

The next year at the 141st IOC Session in Mumbai in October 2023, cricket was added to the Olympic program in the form of men's and women's T20 events beginning in Los Angeles in 2028. It marks the first appearance of cricket as an Olympic sport since Paris in 1900. ^[25]

References

1. "When cricket adorned the Commonwealth Games". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
2. "Australia Squad". Cricinfo. 1998. Archived from the original on 23 July 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
3. "New Zealand Squad". Cricinfo. 1998. Archived from the original on 23 July 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
4. "South Africa Squad". Cricinfo. 1998. Archived from the original on 23 July 2014.
5. "Jamaica Squad". Cricinfo.
6. "Malaysia Squad". Cricinfo.
7. "Sri Lanka Squad". Cricinfo.
8. "Zimbabwe Squad". Cricinfo.
9. "Antigua and Barbuda Squad". Cricinfo.
10. "Australia Squad". Cricinfo.
11. "Canada Squad". Cricinfo.
12. "India Squad". Cricinfo.
13. "Bangladesh Squad". Cricinfo.
14. "Barbados Squad". Cricinfo.
15. "Northern Ireland Squad". Cricinfo.
16. "South Africa Squad". Cricinfo.
17. "Kenya Squad". Cricinfo.
18. "New Zealand Squad". Cricinfo.
19. "Pakistan Squad". Cricinfo.
20. "Scotland Squad". Cricinfo.
21. "Commonwealth Games 1998/99 Table, Matches, win, loss, points for Commonwealth Games". ESPNcricinfo.com. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
22. The Commonwealth Games Experience by Shaun Pollock ESPN Cricinfo
23. "Cricket unlikely at 2010 Games". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
24. "Cricket still a chance for future Games". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
25. Gollapudi, Nagraj (16 October 2023). "T20 cricket confirmed as one of five new sports at LA28". ESPN CricInfo. ESPN. Retrieved 16 October 2023.

External links

• Cricinfo archive on event
• Cricinfo list of squads at the event