If there was ever a global sporting event that went horribly wrong in every conceivable way, it was the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies.

The new stadiums were all built away from cities, and had pathetic transport facilities to and from the stadia. The tickets were overpriced, leading to locals staying away and empty stands. Musical instruments were banned, thereby robbing the world of what would have been a typical Calypso experience. Bar a handful of games, the rest were lackluster and one-sided; TV viewership dwindled. India and Pakistan were eliminated in the group stage within 10 days of the start of the 43-day tournament. This led to huge losses for the broadcasters in India and Pakistan; it was ironic that this World Cup was the first since 1987 to not have any day-night games … matches were to be played only during the day to meet the primetime slots in the subcontinent.

The manner in which the competition was panning out appeared to mock the marketing mantra of the tournament: ‘Come for the cricket. Stay for the party’.

Everything went wrong for everyone else but Australia returned an imperious performance to make it a hat-trick of triumphs

Then there was the sudden death of the high-profile Pakistan coach, Bob Woolmer, leading to all sorts of innuendos and a whodunit script right out of an Agatha Christie novel. For many days, there was literally an inquisition and even two Pakistani journalists were named by an Indian channel as possible suspects in what was sensed to be a murder, simply because they were recorded by the CCTV cameras as being near the hotel lifts late that night. Subsequently the entire Pakistan team was quarantined by the police, and despite being eliminated, they were told not to leave Jamaica until investigations concluded into whether Bob Woolmer had died of natural causes or whether there had been a crime.

Ponting thrilled to bits at bagging the 2007 World Cup, Australia’s fourth

Pakistan in fact had been eliminated from the tournament within a week. In their very first game, they lost to hosts West Indies when they had a relatively stronger team on paper. Despite being poor chasers, Inzamam chose to put West Indies in and ended up facing a target of 242. It was a reasonable score, considering they had been 183-6 at one stage and the much underrated Iftikhar Anjum had bowled intelligently for a return of 3-44 from his 10 overs.

But Pakistan began poorly by losing, predictably, the top order for next to nothing and after a slow-paced partnership of 60 between the senior pair of Yousuf (37) and Inzamam (36), Pakistan went from 99-3 to 116-6. Only Shoaib Malik offered hope but the situation never allowed him to take risks and his half century was in vain as the rest went cheaply, with Pakistan’s last three wickets all falling on 187.

With a total of four qualifying groups with four sides each, the top two of each group were to progress to the Super Eights round robin league. It had been considered a formality that Pakistan would go through, with lowly-rated Ireland and Zimbabwe the other teams in their group. The same was expected of India, which had Sri Lanka, and two lesser-ranked sides in Bangladesh and Bermuda. Yet India lost to Bangladesh and then to Sri Lanka, and went three days after Pakistan’s disastrous exit.

There was the sudden death of the high-profile Pakistan coach, Bob Woolmer, leading to all sorts of innuendos and a whodunit script right out of an Agatha Christie novel. For many days, there was literally an inquisition.

That happened in the most unbelievable of circumstances, though there were howls from the Pakistan camp of having been given the only green top pitch in the entire tournament. A bit unfounded considering they had in their fast bowling armoury Mohammad Sami, Umar Gul and Iftikhar Anjum. Amazingly, though suspiciously, Rana Naved who was a fine swing bowler and probably the best in the world in the death overs, was dropped to bring in the rusty Azhar Mahmood who had literally been a guest player in the Pakistan side in recent years.

Losing the toss against Ireland, it was natural that Pakistan would be put in and so they were. At 56-2 it didn’t appear as bad as it was going to get as by the 46th over Pakistan had been bowled out for 132. What was shocking was the choice of shots that got some of the batsmen out. Pakistan struck back, first with Ireland falling to 15-2 and then being 70-4. But though they lost another at 108 and then two wickets fell on 113, Ireland were home by three wickets with Neil O’Brien’s 72 the main difference. The Irish celebrated like no tomorrow on what was St Patrick’s Day.

Pakistan would have been in with a chance, however, had Zimbabwe not tied a game earlier with Ireland from what was a clearly winning position. Chasing 222 Zimbabwe had at one stage needed 19 with 27 balls and five wickets left. Yet they ended up tying the game off the last ball of the match. Had they won, Pakistan would have got through on net run rate considering they blasted Zimbabwe for 349 in their last game and bowled them out for 99. But it was a miserable ending for the Pakistanis in just about every way possible, playing without their departed coach who had died on the night they had lost to Ireland and then this being Inzamam’s farewell ODI for Pakistan.

Inzamam overcome by emotion after playing his last ODI at the 2007 World Cup

The 2007 World Cup also saw the retirement of Brian Lara who, like Inzamam, went out with nothing to show on what was his home turf; West Indies made the Super Eight but didn’t make the semi-finals. His last game was a thriller, a rarity in that tournament, with West Indies failing to defend a score of 300 despite having England on 189-6. The English for their part failed to finish in the final four with only Kevin Pietersen shining for them.

Those who did were Sri Lanka, led by their maestro captain Mahela Jayewardene, who fetched 548 runs in the tournament. Australia had a dream run all through the tournament with their opening batsmen Hayden (who was to garner 659 runs in the event) and Gilchrist (who would get 453) in sublime form and devastating with the bat as was skipper Ponting who was to finish with 539. Glenn McGrath eventually topped the bowling averages with 26 wickets. New Zealand were the surprise package who sneaked into the semi-finals again as did the chokers South Africa.

This time the Proteas had a plan to get rid of that ‘chokers’ tag but ended up becoming the joke of the tournament. It seemed they wanted to get rid of the nervousness and sought to play the Australian way against the Australians in the semi-final. They came out hitting, or at least trying to. By the 10th over they were 27-5. Each incoming batsman decided he would carry on and get away with it. Though they eventually managed to get to 149 it was pitiful against a rampaging Australian batting lineup.

The other semi-final rocked till near midway of the second innings. Jayewardene got a hundred as Sri Lanka posted 289 and at 105-2 the Kiwis felt they had built a base. But then they lost five wickets for 11 as Muttiah Muralitharan especially bore in; there would be no return for them.

The final arrived with few highlights before it. Yes, in one game Lasith Malinga had taken four wickets in four balls across two overs against South Africa when they needed four more runs for victory; from 206-5 they fumbled to 207-9. They still won by one wicket. And in another against Holland the South African Herschelle Gibbs had blasted six sixes in one over. But there was little more excitement in a total of 51 games in the tournament.

The final was a disaster from an organisational point of view. Although Adam Gilchrist hammered the Lankan attack for 149, he was to later point to a squash ball he had tucked into his glove for a better grip. But the main damper came when bad light stopped play and the fallacy of having no light towers installed was revealed.

The larger embarrassment came when the umpires ordered the players back to the field when the light was still bad, in order to complete the truncated quota of 36 overs. It was ridiculous since 20 overs had been bowled in the second innings which constituted a game if light was still bad enough to not make play possible. As it was, Sri Lanka were in a hopeless position of needing some 120 runs in around 11 overs with the sun almost setting.

That the sun set on the 2007 World Cup was by many seen as a relief; just about everyone associated with the tournament — players, officials, media and spectators — had wanted it to end so everyone could go home. Perhaps the men least affected were the Australians, who won every game and with that their third World Cup in a row.

ICC World Cup — 2007

Teams: 16

Games: 51

Hosts: West Indies

Venues: 8

Format: Four groups of four teams, top two from each proceeded to the Super Eights, from which the semi-finalists were chosen

Winners: Australia; Runners-up Sri Lanka

Man of the Series: Glenn McGrath

Prize money: Total US$5m; Winners $2.24m; Runners-up $1m

Match summaries

First round
West Indies v Pakistan (Group D) at Kingston on March 13 — West Indies won by 54 runs (WI 241/9; Pak 187)

Australia v Scotland (Group A) at Basseterre on March 14 — Australia won by 203 runs (Aus 334/6; Sco 131)

Canada v Kenya (Group C) at Gros Islet on March 14 — Kenya won by 7 wickets (with 6.4 overs remaining) (Can 199; Ken 203/3)

Bermuda v Sri Lanka (Group B) at Port of Spain on March 15 — Sri Lanka won by 243 runs (SL 321/6; Ber 78)

Ireland v Zimbabwe (Group D) at Kingston on March 15 — Match tied (Ire 221/9; Zim 221)

England v New Zealand (Group C) at Gros Islet on March 16 — New Zealand won by 6 wickets (with 9 overs remaining) (Eng 209/7; NZ 210/4)

Netherlands v South Africa (Group A) at Basseterre on March 16 — South Africa won by 221 runs (SA 353/3 in 40 ov); Net 132/9 in 40 ov)

Bangladesh v India (Group B) at Port of Spain on March 17 — Bangladesh won by 5 wickets (with 1.3 overs remaining) (Ind 191; Ban 192/5)

Ireland v Pakistan (Group D) at Kingston on March 17 — Ireland won by 3 wickets (with 5.2 overs remaining) (D/L method) (Pak 132; Ire 133/7)

Australia v Netherlands (Group A) at Basseterre on March 18 — Australia won by 229 runs (Aus 358/5; Net 129)

Canada v England (Group C) at Gros Islet on March 18 — England won by 51 runs (Eng 279/6; Can 228/7)

Bermuda v India (Group B) at Port of Spain on March 19 — India won by 257 runs (Ind 413/5; Ber 156)

West Indies v Zimbabwe (Group D) at Kingston on March 19 — West Indies won by 6 wickets (with 2.1 overs remaining) (Zim 202/5; WI 204/4)

Kenya v New Zealand (Group C) at Gros Islet - March 20 — New Zealand won by 148 runs (NZ 331/7; Ken 183)

Scotland v South Africa (Group A) at Basseterre on March 20 — South Africa won by 7 wickets (with 26.4 overs remaining) (Sco 186/8; SA 188/3)

Bangladesh v Sri Lanka (Group B) at Port of Spain on March 21 — Sri Lanka won by 198 runs (D/L method) (SL 318/4; Ban 112 (37/46 ov)

Pakistan v Zimbabwe (Group D) at Kingston on March 21 — Pakistan won by 93 runs (D/L method) (Pak 349; Zim 99 (19.1/20 ov)

Canada v New Zealand (Group C) at Gros Islet on March 22 — New Zealand won by 114 runs (NZ 363/5; Can 249)

Netherlands v Scotland (Group A) at Basseterre on March 22 — Netherlands won by 8 wickets (with 26.1 overs remaining) (Sco 136; Net 140/2)

India v Sri Lanka (Group B) at Port of Spain on March 23 — Sri Lanka won by 69 runs (SL 254/6; Ind 185)

West Indies v Ireland (Group D) at Kingston on March 23 — West Indies won by 8 wickets (with 9.5 overs remaining) (D/L method) (Ire 183/8 in (48/48 ov); WI 190/2 (38.1/48 ov)

Australia v South Africa (Group A) at Basseterre on March 24 — Australia won by 83 runs (Aus 377/6; SA 294)

England v Kenya (Group C) at Gros Islet on March 24 — England won by 7 wickets (with 10 overs remaining) (Ken 177 (43/43 ov); Eng 178/3 (33/43 ov)

Bangladesh v Bermuda (Group B) at Port of Spain on March 25 — Bangladesh won by 7 wickets (with 3.3 overs remaining) (D/L method) (Ber 94/9 (21/21 ov); Ban 96/3 (17.3/21 ov)

Super Eight

West Indies v Australia at North Sound on March 27-28 — Australia won by 103 runs (Aus 322/6; WI 219)

South Africa v Sri Lanka at Providence on March 28 — South Africa won by 1 wicket (with 1.4 overs remaining) (SL 209; SA 212/9)

West Indies v New Zealand at North Sound on March 29 — New Zealand won by 7 wickets (with 10.4 remaining) (WI 177; NZ 179/3)

England v Ireland at Providence on March 30 — England won by 48 runs (Eng 266/7; Ire 218)

Australia v Bangladesh at North Sound on March 31 — Australia won by 10 wickets (with 8.1 overs remaining) (Ban 104/6 (22/22 ov); Aus 106/0 (13.5/22 ov)

West Indies v Sri Lanka at Providence on April 1 — Sri Lanka won by 113 runs (SL 303/5; WI 190)

Bangladesh v New Zealand at North Sound on April 2 — New Zealand won by 9 wickets (with 20.4 overs remaining) (Ban 174; NZ 178/1)

Ireland v South Africa at Providence on April 3 — South Africa won by 7 wickets (with 3.3 overs remaining) (D/L method) (Ire 152/8 (35/35); South Africa 165/3 (31.3/35 ov)

England v Sri Lanka at North Sound on April 4 — Sri Lanka won by 2 runs (SL 235; Eng 233/8)

Bangladesh v South Africa at Providence on April 7 — Bangladesh won by 67 runs (Ban 251/8; SA 184)

Australia v England at North Sound on April 8 — Australia won by 7 wickets (with 2.4 overs remaining) (Eng 247; Aus 248/3)

Ireland v New Zealand at Providence on April 9 — New Zealand won by 129 runs (NZ 263/8; Ire 134)

West Indies v South Africa at St George’s on April 10 — South Africa won by 67 runs (SA 356/4; WI 289/9)

Bangladesh v England at Bridgetown on April 11 — England won by 4 wickets (with 5.1 overs remaining) (Ban 143; Eng 147/6)

New Zealand v Sri Lanka at St George’s on April 12 — Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets (with 4.5 overs remaining) (NZ 219/7; SL 222/4)

Australia v Ireland at Bridgetown on April 13 — Australia won by 9 wickets (with 37.4 overs remaining) (Ire 91; Aus 92/1)

New Zealand v South Africa at St George’s on April 14 — New Zealand won by 5 wickets (with 1.4 overs remaining) (SA 193/7; NZ 196/5)

Bangladesh v Ireland at Bridgetown on April 15 — Ireland won by 74 runs (Ire 243/7; Ban 169)

Australia v Sri Lanka at St George’s on April 16 — Australia won by 7 wickets (with 7.2 overs remaining) (SL 226; Aus 232/3)

England v South Africa at Bridgetown on April 17 — South Africa won by 9 wickets (with 30.4 overs remaining) (Eng 154; SA 157/1)

Ireland v Sri Lanka at St George’s on April 18 — Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets (with 40 overs remaining) (Ire 77; SL 81/2)

West Indies v Bangladesh at Bridgetown on April 19 — West Indies won by 99 runs (WI 230/5; Ban 131)

Australia v New Zealand at St George’s on April 20 — Australia won by 215 runs (Aus 348/6; NZ 133)

West Indies v England at Bridgetown on April 21 — England won by 1 wicket (with 1 ball remaining) (WI 300; Eng 301/9)

Knockout

1st Semi-final: New Zealand v Sri Lanka at Kingston on April 24 — Sri Lanka won by 81 runs (SL 289/5; NZ 208)

2nd Semi-final: Australia v South Africa at Gros Islet on April 25 — Australia won by 7 wickets (with 18.3 overs remaining) (SA 149; Aus 153/3)

Final: Australia v Sri Lanka at Bridgetown on April 28 — Australia won by 53 runs (D/L method) (Aus 281/4 (38/38 ov); SL 215/8 (36/36 ov).

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, February 1st, 2015

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