ක්‍රිකට් ලෝක කුසලානය 2007

{සිංහල}

The 2007 Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Cricket World Cup 2007) was the 9th edition of the tournament that took place in the from 13 March to 28 April 2007, using the sport's (ODI) format. There were a total of 51 matches played, three fewer than at the (despite a field larger by two teams).

The 16 competing teams were initially divided into four groups, with the two best-performing teams from each group moving on to a "Super 8" format. From this, , , Sri Lanka, and won through to the semi-finals, with Australia defeating Sri Lanka in the final to win their third consecutive World Cup and their fourth overall. Australia's unbeaten record in the tournament increased their total to 29 consecutive World Cup matches without loss, a dating back to 23 May 1999, during the group stage of the . The tournament also saw upsets in the first round with tournament favourites and failing to advance past the group stage while , the lowest-ranked Test-playing nation, and , an associate (non-Test-playing) nation, advanced to the Super 8s.

Following the tournament the ICC distributed surplus tournament revenues of 239 million to its members.

Host selection

The World Cup was awarded to the West Indies via the International Cricket Council's rotational policy. It is the first time the has been held in the Caribbean despite the fact that the had been the second most successful team in past World Cups.

The United States contingent lobbied strongly for matches to be staged at its newly built cricket ground in , Florida, but the ICC decided to award all matches to Caribbean nations. Bids from , , and a second bid by were also rejected.

Eight venues across the West Indies were selected to host the World Cup tournament. All host countries hosted six matches with the exceptions of St. Lucia, Jamaica, and Barbados (which hosted the final), each of which hosted seven matches.

The Jamaican government spent US$81 million for "on-the-pitch" expenses. This included refurbishing Sabina Park and constructing the new multi-purpose facility in Trelawny through a loan from China. Another US$20 million was budgeted for 'off-the-pitch' expenses, putting the tally at more than US$100 million or 7 billion.

This put the reconstruction cost of Sabina Park at US$46 million whilst the Trelawny Stadium was estimated to cost US$35 million. The total amount of money spent on stadiums was at least US$301 million.

, in Trinidad, lost its status as a pre-tournament warm-up match venue on 21 September 2006.

Venues

Venue	City	Country	Capacity	Matches
			27,000	7 (final)
			30,000	7 (semi-final)
			20,000	7 (semi-final)
			26,000	6
			15,000	6
			20,000	6
			20,000	6
			10,000	6

Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 27,000	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 15,000
Capacity: 16,000	Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 25,000

Warm up venues

Venue	City	Country	Capacity	Matches
			8,500	4
			25,000	4
			18,000	4
				4

Qualification

The captains of the 2007 Cricket World Cup

The field of 16 teams, the largest ever for the Cricket World Cup, consisted of all 16 teams which currently held ODI status. This included the ten full members of the ICC, all of which have Test and permanent ODI status. The other six (associate) ODI nations were Kenya (which had ODI status until 2009) and five additional teams that qualified via the (gaining ODI status until 2009 in the process). These nations included Canada, Scotland, the Netherlands, and—making their World Cup debuts—Ireland and Bermuda.

Full Members
ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව	බංග්ලාදේශය
එංගලන්තය	ඉන්දියාව
නවසීලන්තය	පකිස්තානය
දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව	ශ්‍රී ලංකාව
බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව්	සිම්බාබ්වේ
Associate Members
	අයර්ලන්තය
නෙදර්ලන්තය

Squads

ප්‍රධාන ලිපිය:

The sixteen teams were each asked to announce their final squads by 13 February 2007. Changes were allowed after this deadline at the discretion of the ICC's Technical Committee in necessary cases, such as due to player injury.

Media coverage

The official mascot of the tournament was Mello, an orange, anthropomorphic, raccoon-like animal.

The World Cup had grown as a media event with each tournament. The sponsorship and television rights that were awarded primarily to cover the 2003 and 2007 World Cups raised over US$550 million. The 2007 World Cup was televised in over 200 countries to a viewing audience estimated at more than two billion viewers and was expected to generate more than 100,000 unique visitors to the West Indies travelling solely for the tournament.

The 2007 Cricket World Cup featured an orange, anthropomorphic -like creature named "Mello" as its mascot. It was announced during matches that Mello had no race, species, age or gender—it was an attitude, the attitude of the young people of the West Indies. The official song for the World Cup was "The Game of Love and Unity" by -born , entertainer , and .

The 2007 tournament recorded the highest ticket sales for a Cricket World Cup, selling more than 672,000. Attendance leading into the semi-finals for the 2007 World Cup was 403,000, an average of 8,500 supporters per match.

Leadup

All major Test-playing nations had schedules allowing them to play a large number of ODI matches against other major ODI teams just prior to the World Cup. Australia, New Zealand, and England took part in the where England defeated Australia in the finals. Australia then went to New Zealand for the , losing 3–0. South Africa played five ODIs against India (South Africa won 4–0) and five against Pakistan (South Africa won 3–1), while India also played four ODIs against the West Indies (India won 3–1) and four ODIs against Sri Lanka (India won 2–1). Bangladesh played four ODIs against Zimbabwe (Bangladesh won 3–1) and won a tri-series against Canada and Bermuda. The associate ODI teams took part in the , which Kenya won, and were also involved in other series prior to the World Cup.

The rankings of the teams at the beginning of the Cricket World Cup were:

Ranking	Team	Points
1	දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව	128
2	ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව	125
3	නවසීලන්තය	113
4	පකිස්තානය	111
5	ඉන්දියාව	109
6	ශ්‍රී ලංකාව	108
7	එංගලන්තය	106
8	බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව්	101
9	බංග්ලාදේශය	42
10	සිම්බාබ්වේ	22
11		0
12		0% / 69%
13	නෙදර්ලන්තය	0% / 50%
14	අයර්ලන්තය	0% / 44%
15		0% / 33%
16		0% / 28%

Note:Teams 12–16 did not have official ODI rankings leading up to the World Cup; they are ranked based on their win percentage against full members and then wins against associate members prior to the tournament.

Warm-up matches

ප්‍රධාන ලිපිය:

Prior to the main tournament all 16 nations played a series of warm-up matches to prepare, experiment with different tactics, and to help them get acclimated to conditions in the West Indies. The warm-up matches were not considered as official ODIs. The matches were played from Monday 5 March until Friday 9 March. The matches included a surprise victory by Bangladesh over New Zealand.

Opening ceremony

performing during the ceremony.

Fireworks in the opening ceremony of the 2007 Cricket World Cup

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 Opening Ceremony was held on Sunday, 11 March 2007, at in . It featured over 2,000 dancers and performers representing all strands of music, from and to and . Among the performers were , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , the , and .

The ceremony, attended by several including the , started with an address by and included messages from the prime ministers of and .

Rules and regulations

Matches

The matches were One Day Internationals and operated under normal ODI rules. All matches were to be 50 a side unless stated otherwise by the umpires or match referee. A bowler was able to bowl a maximum of 10 overs per match.

In the event of bad weather, each side must have batted a minimum of 20 overs for a result to be declared (if the match was not otherwise won, for example if the team batting second were dismissed before the completion of 20 overs). In the event of bad weather, the was to be applied to determine the result or target. If no result was declared on the scheduled day, the teams would return the following day to complete the game, with the same situation as when the game was abandoned.

There was a new rule regarding referral of catches to the TV replay official (third umpire): if the standing umpires were unable to determine whether a catch had been taken cleanly, and/or whether a claimed catch was a "bump ball", they had discretion to refer the decision to the third umpire. Also, whilst reviewing such a catch via TV replay if it was clear to the third umpire that the batsman did not hit the ball, he was to indicate that the batsman was not out.

Tournament points

In the Group and Super 8 stages, points were awarded as follows:

Points

Results	Points
Win	2 points
Tie/No Result	1-point
Loss	0 points

The top two teams from each group advanced to the Super 8 stage and any points they earned against the other qualifier from their own group was carried through. Points earned against the non-qualifying teams in the same pool were not carried over. In the Super 8s, each team played the six remaining qualifiers from the other groups and the top four teams went through to the semi-finals. Positions were decided by most points. Where two or more teams were tied on points, the following methods in turn were used to decide which team went through:

1. Most wins in their group or in Super 8, whichever is applicable
2. Higher
3. Higher number of wickets taken per ball
4. Winners of head to head matches
5. The drawing of lots

Umpires

ප්‍රධාන ලිපිය:

The umpiring panel for the 2007 Cricket World Cup comprised nine umpires from the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires (the only member not included was Darrell Hair), and nine umpires from the international panel. The refereeing panel consisted of seven members from the Elite Panel of ICC Referees, with Clive Lloyd not being included due to his role as the West Indies's team manager. Aleem Dar went on to stand as an umpire in his first World Cup final, alongside Steve Bucknor who appeared in his fifth final in a row, extending his record of four from the 2003 World Cup.

Groups

Seeds

The tournament began with a league stage consisting of four groups of four. Each team played each of the other teams in its group once. Australia, India, England, and the West Indies were placed in separate pools for logistical reasons, as they were expected to have the most supporters in attendance, and transport and accommodation capacity in the West Indies was limited.

The groups are listed below, with seedings (rankings from April 2005) shown in brackets. Each group played all of its matches at a single ground.

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව	ශ්‍රී ලංකාව	නවසීලන්තය	පකිස්තානය
දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව	ඉන්දියාව	එංගලන්තය	බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව්
	බංග්ලාදේශය		සිම්බාබ්වේ
නෙදර්ලන්තය			අයර්ලන්තය

System

The tournament was preceded by a number of warm-up matches to acclimate the players. The group stage matches started on Tuesday 13 March and finished on Sunday 25 March. There were a total of 24 matches played in the group stage.

The top two teams in each group proceeded to the "Super 8" stage which also used a league system. Each team carried forward its result against the other team qualifying from its preliminary stage group, and played the other six qualifying teams once each. The top four teams in the league qualified for the semi-finals. This system was modified since the previous World Cup, which had a "Super 6" stage rather than a Super 8. The Super 8 stage matches were played from Tuesday 27 March until Saturday 21 April. A total of 24 matches were played in the Super 8 stage.

The top four teams in the "Super 8" advanced to the semi-finals. This was the knockout stage, with the No. 1 team playing the No. 4 team, and the No. 2 team playing the No. 3 team in the tournament. The winners of the two semi-finals played each other in the Final.

All tournament matches had one reserve day (the day after the scheduled day of the match) to allow for matches to be completed in the event of bad weather.

Group stage

Group A

ප්‍රධාන ලිපිය:

Team	Pld	W	T	L	NR	NRR	Pts
ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව	3	3	0	0	0	+3.433	6
දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව	3	2	0	1	0	+2.403	4
නෙදර්ලන්තය	3	1	0	2	0	−2.527	2
	3	0	0	3	0	−3.793	0

14 March 2007 Scorecard

ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව  334/6 (50 overs)

එ

131 (40.1 overs)

Australia won by 203 runs , , Saint Kitts and Nevis

16 March 2007 Scorecard

දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව  353/3 (40 overs)

එ

නෙදර්ලන්තය 132/9 (40 overs)

South Africa won by 221 runs , , Saint Kitts and Nevis

18 March 2007 Scorecard

ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව  358/5 (50 overs)

එ

නෙදර්ලන්තය 129 (26.5 overs)

Australia won by 229 runs , , Saint Kitts and Nevis

20 March 2007 Scorecard

186/8 (50 overs)

එ

දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව 188/3 (23.2 overs)

South Africa won by 7 wickets , , Saint Kitts and Nevis

22 March 2007 Scorecard

136 (34.1 overs)

එ

නෙදර්ලන්තය 140/2 (23.5 overs)

Netherlands won by 8 wickets , , Saint Kitts and Nevis

24 March 2007 Scorecard

ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව  377/6 (50 overs)

එ

දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව 294 (48 overs)

Australia won by 83 runs , , Saint Kitts and Nevis

Group B

ප්‍රධාන ලිපිය:

Team	Pld	W	T	L	NR	NRR	Pts
ශ්‍රී ලංකාව	3	3	0	0	0	+3.493	6
බංග්ලාදේශය	3	2	0	1	0	−1.523	4
ඉන්දියාව	3	1	0	2	0	+1.206	2
	3	0	0	3	0	−4.345	0

15 March 2007 Scorecard

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව  321/6 (50 overs)

එ

78 (24.4 overs)

Sri Lanka won by 243 runs , , Trinidad and Tobago

17 March 2007 Scorecard

ඉන්දියාව  191 (49.3 overs)

එ

බංග්ලාදේශය 192/5 (48.3 overs)

Bangladesh won by 5 wickets , , Trinidad and Tobago

19 March 2007 Scorecard

ඉන්දියාව  413/5 (50 overs)

එ

156 (43.1 overs)

India won by 257 runs , , Trinidad and Tobago

21 March 2007 Scorecard

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව  318/4 (50 overs)

එ

බංග්ලාදේශය 112 (37 overs)

Sri Lanka won by 198 runs () , , Trinidad and Tobago

23 March 2007 Scorecard

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව  254/6 (50 overs)

එ

ඉන්දියාව 185 (43.3 overs)

Sri Lanka won by 69 runs , , Trinidad and Tobago

25 March 2007 Scorecard

94/9 (21 overs)

එ

බංග්ලාදේශය 96/3 (17.3 overs)

Bangladesh won by 7 wickets () , , Trinidad and Tobago

Group C

ප්‍රධාන ලිපිය:

Team	Pld	W	T	L	NR	NRR	Pts
නවසීලන්තය	3	3	0	0	0	+2.138	6
එංගලන්තය	3	2	0	1	0	+0.418	4
	3	1	0	2	0	−1.194	2
	3	0	0	3	0	−1.389	0

14 March 2007 Scorecard

199 (50 overs)

එ

203/3 (43.2 overs)

Kenya won by 7 wickets , , Saint Lucia

16 March 2007 Scorecard

එංගලන්තය  209/7 (50 overs)

එ

නවසීලන්තය 210/4 (41 overs)

New Zealand won by 6 wickets , , Saint Lucia

18 March 2007 Scorecard

එංගලන්තය  279/6 (50 overs)

එ

228/7 (50 overs)

England won by 51 runs , , Saint Lucia

20 March 2007 Scorecard

නවසීලන්තය  331/7 (50 overs)

එ

183 (49.2 overs)

New Zealand won by 148 runs , , Saint Lucia

22 March 2007 Scorecard

නවසීලන්තය  363/5 (50 overs)

එ

249/9 (49.2 overs)

New Zealand won by 114 runs , , Saint Lucia

24 March 2007 Scorecard

177 (43 overs)

එ

එංගලන්තය 178/3 (33 overs)

England won by 7 wickets , , Saint Lucia

Group D

ප්‍රධාන ලිපිය:

Team	Pld	W	T	L	NR	NRR	Pts
බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව්	3	3	0	0	0	+0.764	6
අයර්ලන්තය	3	1	1	1	0	−0.092	3
පකිස්තානය	3	1	0	2	0	+0.089	2
සිම්බාබ්වේ	3	0	1	2	0	−0.886	1

13 March 2007 Scorecard

බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව්  241/9 (50 overs)

එ

පකිස්තානය 187 (47.2 overs)

West Indies won by 54 runs , , Jamaica

15 March 2007 Scorecard

අයර්ලන්තය  221/9 (50 overs)

එ

සිම්බාබ්වේ 221 (50 overs)

Match tied , , Jamaica

17 March 2007 Scorecard

පකිස්තානය  132 (45.4 overs)

එ

අයර්ලන්තය 133/7 (41.4 overs)

Ireland won by 3 wickets () , , Jamaica

19 March 2007 Scorecard

සිම්බාබ්වේ  202/5 (50 overs)

එ

බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව් 204/4 (47.5 overs)

West Indies won by 6 wickets , , Jamaica

21 March 2007 Scorecard

පකිස්තානය  349 (49.5 overs)

එ

සිම්බාබ්වේ 99 (19.1 overs)

Pakistan won by 93 runs () , , Jamaica

23 March 2007 Scorecard

අයර්ලන්තය  183/8 (48 overs)

එ

බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව් 190/2 (38.1 overs)

West Indies won by 8 wickets () , , Jamaica

Super 8 stage

ප්‍රධාන ලිපිය:

The top two teams in each first-round group moved on to a "Super 8" stage which was scored as a complete . However, each of the eight teams played only six new matches, rather than seven—each group's two representatives carried forward their result against each other rather than play again. Thus the table below, showing seven matches for each team, covers all matches between the Super 8 qualifiers, including those from the Group Stage.

Teams depicted in green backgrounds qualified for the semi-finals.

Team	Pld	W	T	L	NR	NRR	Pts
ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව	7	7	0	0	0	+2.400	14
ශ්‍රී ලංකාව	7	5	0	2	0	+1.483	10
නවසීලන්තය	7	5	0	2	0	+0.253	10
දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව	7	4	0	3	0	+0.313	8
එංගලන්තය	7	3	0	4	0	−0.394	6
බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව්	7	2	0	5	0	−0.566	4
බංග්ලාදේශය	7	1	0	6	0	−1.514	2
අයර්ලන්තය	7	1	0	6	0	−1.730	2

27 March 2007 Scorecard

ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව  322/6 (50 overs)

එ

බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව් 219 (45.3 overs)

Australia won by 103 runs , , Antigua and Barbuda

28 March 2007 Scorecard

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව  209 (49.3 overs)

එ

දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව 212/9 (48.2 overs)

South Africa won by 1 wicket , , Guyana

29 March 2007 Scorecard

බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව්  177 (44.4 overs)

එ

නවසීලන්තය 179/3 (39.2 overs)

New Zealand won by 7 wickets , , Antigua and Barbuda

30 March 2007 Scorecard

එංගලන්තය  266/7 (50 overs)

එ

අයර්ලන්තය 218 (48.1 overs)

England won by 48 runs , , Guyana

31 March 2007 Scorecard

බංග්ලාදේශය  104/6 (22 overs)

එ

ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව 106/0 (13.5 overs)

Australia won by 10 wickets , , Antigua and Barbuda

1 April 2007 Scorecard

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව  303/5 (50 overs)

එ

බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව් 190 (44.3 overs)

Sri Lanka won by 113 runs , , Guyana

2 April 2007 Scorecard

බංග්ලාදේශය  174 (48.3 overs)

එ

නවසීලන්තය 178/1 (29.2 overs)

New Zealand won by 9 wickets , , Antigua and Barbuda

3 April 2007 Scorecard

අයර්ලන්තය  152/8 (35 overs)

එ

දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව 165/3 (31.3 overs)

South Africa won by 7 wickets () , , Guyana

4 April 2007 Scorecard

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව  235 (50 overs)

එ

එංගලන්තය 233/8 (50 overs)

Sri Lanka won by 2 runs , , Antigua and Barbuda

7 April 2007 Scorecard

බංග්ලාදේශය  251/8 (50 overs)

එ

දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව 184 (48.4 overs)

Bangladesh won by 67 runs , , Guyana

8 April 2007 Scorecard

එංගලන්තය  247 (49.5 overs)

එ

ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව 248/3 (47.2 overs)

Australia won by 7 wickets , , Antigua and Barbuda

9 April 2007 Scorecard

නවසීලන්තය  263/8 (50 overs)

එ

අයර්ලන්තය 134 (37.4 overs)

New Zealand won by 129 runs , , Guyana

10 April 2007 Scorecard

දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව  356/4 (50 overs)

එ

බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව් 289/9 (50 overs)

South Africa won by 67 runs , , Grenada

11 April 2007 Scorecard

බංග්ලාදේශය  143 (37.2 overs)

එ

එංගලන්තය 147/6 (44.5 overs)

England won by 4 wickets , , Barbados

12 April 2007 Scorecard

නවසීලන්තය  219/7 (50 overs)

එ

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව 222/4 (45.1 overs)

Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets , , Grenada

13 April 2007 Scorecard

අයර්ලන්තය  91 (30 overs)

එ

ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව 92/1 (12.2 overs)

Australia won by 9 wickets , , Barbados

14 April 2007 Scorecard

දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව  193/7 (50 overs)

එ

නවසීලන්තය 196/5 (48.2 overs)

New Zealand won by 5 wickets , , Grenada

15 April 2007 Scorecard

අයර්ලන්තය  243/7 (50 overs)

එ

බංග්ලාදේශය 169 (41.2 overs)

Ireland won by 74 runs , , Barbados

16 April 2007 Scorecard

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව  226 (49.4 overs)

එ

ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව 232/3 (42.4 overs)

Australia won by 7 wickets , , Grenada

17 April 2007 Scorecard

එංගලන්තය  154 (48 overs)

එ

දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව 157/1 (19.2 overs)

South Africa won by 9 wickets , , Barbados

18 April 2007 Scorecard

අයර්ලන්තය  77 (27.4 overs)

එ

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව 81/2 (10 overs)

Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets , , Grenada

19 April 2007 Scorecard

බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව්  230/5 (50 overs)

එ

බංග්ලාදේශය 131 (43.5 overs)

West Indies won by 99 runs , , Barbados

20 April 2007 Scorecard

ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව  348/6 (50 overs)

එ

නවසීලන්තය 133 (25.5 overs)

Australia won by 215 runs , , Grenada

21 April 2007 Scorecard

බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව්  300 (49.5 overs)

එ

එංගලන්තය 301/9 (49.5 overs)

England won by 1 wicket , , Barbados

Knockout stage

සැකිලි ලූපය අනාවරණය කෙරිණි:

Semi-finals

24 April 2007 Scorecard

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව  289/5 (50 overs)

එ

නවසීලන්තය 208 (41.4 overs)

Sri Lanka won by 81 runs , ,

25 April 2007 Scorecard

දකුණු අප්‍රිකාව  149 (43.5 overs)

එ

ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව 153/3 (31.3 overs)

Australia won by 7 wickets , ,

Final

ප්‍රධාන ලිපිය:

28 April 2007 Scorecard

ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව  281/4 (38 overs)

එ

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව 215/8 (36 overs)

Australia won by 53 runs () , ,

Final of 2007 Cricket World Cup between Sri Lanka and Australia

This was the first World Cup final to be a repeat: the sides previously met in the , which Sri Lanka won. Australia had won every World Cup match against Sri Lanka apart from that loss. The match was Sri Lanka's second World Cup final appearance, and Australia's fourth in a row and sixth overall. Australian captain won the toss and elected to bat. However, the start of play was delayed due to rain, and the match was reduced to 38 overs per side. Wicketkeeper played an incredible innings of 149—the highest for any batsman in a World Cup final—to give Australia an imposing total going in at the break.

A large crowd of over 10,000 fans welcome the Australian team on completing the first World Cup hat-trick – , Sydney.

While Sri Lankan batsmen and were adding 116 for the second wicket, the contest was alive, but after the pair got out, Sri Lanka's chances slowly diminished. Further rain forced the reduction of Sri Lanka's innings to just 36 overs, with the target revised to 269. At the end of the 33rd over, with Sri Lanka still trailing the adjusted target by 37 runs, the umpires suspended the game due to bad light. While Australia's players began to celebrate their victory (since the minimum 20 overs had been reached), the umpires incorrectly announced that because the match was suspended due to light and not rain, the final three overs would have to be bowled the following day. With Sri Lanka needing 61 runs from 18 deliveries, Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene agreed there was no need to return the following day, and instructed his team to resume batting; Ponting agreed to play only spin bowlers. The last three overs were played in almost complete darkness, during which Sri Lanka added just nine runs to give Australia a 53-run victory by the D-L method. The umpires later apologised for their error, saying that the match should have ended then with Australia winning by 37 runs.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting

Australia won the tournament undefeated, extending their streak of World Cup matches without a loss to 29. Australian bowler was named 'Player of the Series'.

Controversies

Death of Bob Woolmer

Pakistan coach was found dead on 18 March 2007, one day after his team's defeat to Ireland put them out of the running for the World Cup. Jamaican police performed an autopsy which was deemed inconclusive. The following day police announced that the death was suspicious and ordered a full investigation. Further investigation revealed the cause of death was "manual strangulation", and that the investigation would be handled as a murder. After a lengthy investigation the Jamaican police rescinded the comments that he was murdered, and confirmed that he died from natural causes.

Criticism

The 2007 World Cup organisers were criticised early on for being over-commercialised and, in particular, the generally smaller crowds have been blamed on the ICC's security restrictions on things such as outside food, signs, replica kits, and musical instruments, despite Caribbean cricketing customs, as well as the authorities being accused of "running [cricket and cricketing traditions] out of town, then sanitising it out of existence". echoed the concerns. The ICC were also condemned for high prices of tickets and concessions, which were considered unaffordable for the local population in many of the locations. ICC CEO, , said that the ICC recognised the problem but said it was the local organisers' fault. However, the later matches had more crowds as the tournament progressed with the local organisers easing restrictions. Although it did not meet the target of US$42 million, the US$32 million revenue from ticket sales was the highest of any Cricket World Cup and double that of the previous World Cup.

The World Cup was also criticised by the for its format because India failed to move on from the group stage after losing two of their three matches. The BCCI later claimed it would see to it that the ICC alter its format for the . The elimination of both India and Pakistan also caused a large exodus of subcontinental fans from the Caribbean, and removed the prospect of an India vs Pakistan Super Eights match, generally considered one of the most revenue generating and electric matches in the tournament.

The tournament was also criticised as being too long. At 6 weeks, it was the same length as the 2003 World Cup, but longer than the 5-week 1999 World Cup and the 4-week 1996 World Cup. The famous West Indian fast bowler also criticised the qualification process for the 2007 World Cup. Holding expressed doubts over the benefit to less-established teams of turning up and being heavily defeated. However, former Scotland captain claims that the opportunity to play one-day cricket against the bigger teams is invaluable for smaller teams such as his own, and questioned the validity of Holding's statements. The majority of the experts and players participating in the tournament backed up the smaller teams taking part in the World Cup. This was further backed up with Ireland and Bangladesh making the Super 8s and being competitive and sportsmanlike throughout the tournament.

Further criticism was generated by the confusion at the end of the final match: the umpires announced that play was suspended due to bad light, which caused the Australian team to erupt in celebration as the scoreboard and official announcements declared Australia the winners. However, the umpires incorrectly insisted that the game was only suspended and not completed, and that 3 overs remained to be played, so in farcical light conditions, Sri Lanka batted out the remaining 3 overs following a gentleman's agreement between the two captains. The umpires and the ICC apologised for the unnecessary situation and cited it as an unnecessary fundamental error due to the pressure of the situation. In June the ICC announced that the officials involved—onfield umpires and , reserve umpires and , and match referee —would all be suspended from the .

Preparation problems

A number of preparation problems surfaced before the start of the World Cup. Some of the venues were not complete by the opening ceremony on 11 March 2007. At , seats had to be removed at the newly constructed north-stand due to safety concerns. At in Jamaica, ground staff were unable to gain admission to the ground during the warm-up matches due to accreditation problems. Additionally, South Africa and Australia both expressed concerns over practice facilities.

See also

Notes

1. ICC Consolidated Financial Statements for the 9 months ended 31 December 2007, accounting note 12.
2. In terms of number of wins, win percentage, and number of cups won. In fact, they were on top on all of these criteria from 1975 to 1987, and only in 2003 did Australia pass their number of cups won.
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31. . Cricinfo. 5 April 2007. 19 May 2007 දින මුල් පිටපත වෙතින් සංරක්ෂණය කරන ලදී. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 24 May 2007. {{}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) ()
32. . Cricinfo. 2007. 16 May 2007 දින මුල් පිටපත වෙතින් සංරක්ෂණය කරන ලදී. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 30 April 2007. {{}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) ()
33. "Barbados determined to restore local flavour". Cricinfo. 5 April 2007. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 24 May 2007.
34. . Cricinfo. 16 April 2007. 18 April 2007 දින මුල් පිටපත වෙතින් සංරක්ෂණය කරන ලදී. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 30 April 2007. {{}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) ()
35. "Former BCCI chief blames format for India's exit". Rediff.com. 27 March 2007. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 16 August 2013.
36. . 20 February 2007. 1 March 2007 දින මුල් පිටපත වෙතින් සංරක්ෂණය කරන ලදී. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 9 April 2007. {{}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) ()
37. . Cricket.indiatimes.com. 2 April 2007 දින මුල් පිටපත වෙතින් සංරක්ෂණය කරන ලදී. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 16 August 2013. {{}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) ()
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42. "World Cup officials banned by ICC". Cricinfo. 22 June 2007. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 24 June 2007.
43. . 11 March 2007. 5 May 2007 දින මුල් පිටපත වෙතින් සංරක්ෂණය කරන ලදී. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 9 April 2007. {{}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) ()
44. "A week before the opening Cricket World Cup game, chinks appear at Sabina Park". 11 March 2007. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 9 April 2007.
45. (12 March 2007). . The Sunday Telegraph. London. 20 March 2007 දින මුල් පිටපත වෙතින් සංරක්ෂණය කරන ලදී. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 9 April 2007. {{}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) ()
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External links

2007 Cricket World Cup හා සබැඳි මාධ්‍ය විකිමාධ්‍ය කොමන්ස් හි ඇත.

• 2007 Cricket World Cup website
• ICC Overview of 2007 World Cup 2006-09-05 at the Wayback Machine
• ICC website – Cricket World Cup page
• Cricinfo – Cricket World Cup 2007
• 2007 Cricket World Cup Australia's Winning ODI Kit