1992 Cricket World Cup

The 1992 Cricket World Cup was the fifth staging of the tournament and was held from 22 February to 25 March 1992 in Australia and New Zealand.

1992 Benson and Hedges World Cup
Dates	22 February – 25 March
Administrator(s)	International Cricket Council
Cricket format	One Day International
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin andKnockout
Host(s)	Australia  New Zealand
Champions	Pakistan (1st title)
Participants	9
Matches played	39
Man of the Series	Martin Crowe
Most runs	Martin Crowe(456)
Most wickets	Wasim Akram (18)

Firsts

The 1992 World Cup was the first to feature coloured player clothing, white cricket balls and black sightscreens with a number of matches being played under floodlights.^[1] These innovations had been increasingly used in One Day Internationals since World Series Cricket introduced them in the late 1970s, but they were not a feature of previous World Cups. The 1992 World Cup was also the first to be held in Southern hemisphere. It was also the first World Cup to include the South Africa national cricket team, which had been allowed to re-join the International Cricket Council as a Test-playing nation after the end of apartheid.

Format

The format was changed from previous tournaments in that a complete round-robin replaced the use of two qualifying groups. The initial draw was released with eight competing countries and 28 round-robin matches. In late 1991, South Africa were re-admitted to the International Cricket Council after long years of apartheid and the draw was amended to include them. The revised draw included 36 round-robin matches plus the two semi-finals and the final.

The rule for calculating the target score for the team batting second in rain-affected matches was also changed. The previous rule simply multiplied the run rate of the team batting first by the number of overs available to the team batting second. This rule was deemed to be too much in favour of the team batting second. In an attempt to rectify this, the target score would now be calculated by the "highest scoring overs" formula.

In this system, if the team batting second had 44 overs available, their target score would be one greater than the 44 highest scoring overs of the team batting first. While the reasoning behind the system was sound, the timing of rain interruptions remained problematic: as the semi-final between England and South Africa demonstrated, where a difficult but eminently reachable 22 runs off 13 balls was reduced to 22 off 7 (the least productive over, a maiden, being deducted) and finally 21 off 1 ball (the next least productive over having given 1 run). It was seen that, if the interruption came during the second innings, the side batting second was at a significant disadvantage – one which was only overcome once, in fact, in England's group-stage victory over South Africa.

Teams

The 1992 World Cup featured the seven Test teams of the day, South Africa, who would play their first Test in 22 years in the West Indies a month after the World Cup, and Zimbabwe, who would play their first Test match later in 1992. Teams who entered were:

•  Australia (winners of the 1987 Cricket World Cup)
•  England
•  India (winners of the 1983 Cricket World Cup)
•  New Zealand
•  Pakistan
•  South Africa
•  Sri Lanka
•  West Indies (winners of the 1975 Cricket World Cup and 1979 Cricket World Cup)
•  Zimbabwe.

Venues

Australia

Perth

Melbourne

Sydney

Hobart

Mackay

Brisbane

Adelaide

Ballarat

Canberra

Berri

Albury

Venues in Australia

Venue	City	Matches
Adelaide Oval	Adelaide, South Australia	3
Lavington Sports Oval	Albury, New South Wales	1
Eastern Oval	Ballarat, Victoria	1
Berri Oval	Berri, South Australia	1
The Gabba	Brisbane, Queensland	3
Manuka Oval	Canberra, ACT	1
Bellerive Oval	Hobart, Tasmania	2
Ray Mitchell Oval	Mackay, Queensland	1
Melbourne Cricket Ground	Melbourne, Victoria	5
WACA Ground	Perth, Western Australia	3
Sydney Cricket Ground	Sydney, New South Wales	4

New Zealand

Auckland

Christchurch

Dunedin

Hamilton

Napier

New Plymouth

Wellington

Venues in New Zealand

Venue	City	Matches
Eden Park	Auckland, Auckland	4
Lancaster Park	Christchurch, Canterbury	2
Carisbrook	Otago	1
Trust Bank Park	Hamilton, Waikato	2
McLean Park	Napier, Hawke's Bay	1
Pukekura Park	New Plymouth, Taranaki	1
Basin Reserve	Wellington, Wellington	3

Officials

Umpires

Out of the 11 selected umpires, 2 of them belong to Australia, 2 were from New Zealand while 1 from England, Pakistan, India, West Indies, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe each. The first semifinal was supervised by Steve Bucknor and David Shepherd while Brian Aldridge and Steve Randell supervised the second semifinal.

Steve Bucknor and Brian Aldridge were elected to supervise the 1992 Cricket World Cup final.

S.No.	Umpire	Country	Matches
1	Steve Bucknor	West Indies	9
2	Brian Aldridge	New Zealand	9
3	David Shepherd	England	8
4	Steve Randell	Australia	8
5	Khizer Hayat	Pakistan	7
6	Piloo Reporter	India	7
7	Dooland Buulltjens	Sri Lanka	6
8	Peter McConnell	Australia	6
9	Steve Woodward	New Zealand	6
10	Ian Robinson	Zimbabwe	6
11	Karl Liebenberg	South Africa	6

Referees

2 referees were also selected to supervise the semifinals and final. 1st semifinal was supervised by Peter Burge while Frank Cameron supervised the 2nd semifinal.Peter Burge was the referee in the final.

Referee	Country	Matches	1992 WC
Peter Burge	Australia	63	2
Frank Cameron	New Zealand	5	1

Tournament progression

Round-robin stage Knockout Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 SF F  Australia 0 0 2 2 4 4 6 8  England 2 4 5 7 9 11 11 11 W L  India 0 1 1 3 5 5 5 5  New Zealand 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 14 L  Pakistan 0 2 3 3 3 5 7 9 W W  South Africa 2 2 2 4 6 8 8 10 L  Sri Lanka 2 2 3 5 5 5 5 5  West Indies 2 2 4 4 4 6 8 8  Zimbabwe 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Win Loss No result Note: The total points at the end of each group match are listed. Note: Click on the points (group matches) or W/L (knockout) to see the match summary.  Round - Robin Stage Co-hosts New Zealand proved the surprise packet of the tournament, winning their first seven games to finish on top of the table after the round-robin. The other hosts, Australia, one of the pre-tournament favourites lost their first two matches. They recovered somewhat to win four of the remaining six, but narrowly missed out on the semi-finals. The West Indies also finished with a 4–4 record, but were just behind Australia on run-rate. South Africa made a triumphant return to international cricket with a win over Australia at the SCG in their first match. They and England had solid campaigns and easily qualified for the semis, despite upset losses to Sri Lanka andZimbabwe respectively. India had a disappointing tournament and never looked likely to progress beyond the round-robin. Sri Lankawere still establishing themselves at the highest level and beat only Zimbabwe (who did not yet have Test status) and South Africa. New Zealand were defeated only twice in the tournament, both times by Pakistan, in their final group match and in the semi-final.Pakistan had been lucky to be in the semi-finals at all: following only one victory in their first five matches, they were also fortunate to scrape a point from the washed-out match against England which appeared to be heading for a heavy English victory (Pak 74 all out,Eng 24/1): eventually they finished one point ahead of Australia with an inferior run-rate. Points Table Team Pts Pld W L NR T RD RR  New Zealand 14 8 7 1 0 0 0.59 4.76  England 11 8 5 2 1 0 0.47 4.36  South Africa 10 8 5 3 0 0 0.14 4.36  Pakistan 9 8 4 3 1 0 0.17 4.33  Australia 8 8 4 4 0 0 0.20 4.22  West Indies 8 8 4 4 0 0 0.07 4.14  India 5 8 2 5 1 0 0.14 4.95  Sri Lanka 5 8 2 5 1 0 −0.68 4.21  Zimbabwe 2 8 1 7 0 0 −1.14 4.03 Summary In the first semi final, Pakistan defeated tournament favourites New Zealand in a high scoring encounter to win their first semi final in 4 attempts and book a place in the World Cup Final for the first time. Inzamam-ul-Haq smashed a 37 ball 60 in the run chase to achieve the target with one over remaining and also won the Man of the Match award. In the second semi final between South Africa and England, the match ended in controversial circumstances when, after a 10-minute rain delay, the most productive overs method revised their target from 22 runs from 13 balls to an impossible 21 runs from one ball. This rule was replaced for One-day International matches in Australia after the World Cup as a result of this incident, and it was eventually superseded by the Duckworth-Lewis method for the 1999 World Cup onwards. According to the late Bill Frindall, had the Duckworth-Lewis method been applied at that rain interruption, the revised target would have been four runs to tie or five to win from the final ball.As a point of clarity, Cricinfo points out that England's innings was cut short by rain, and that had Duckworth-Lewis been applied to the entire game, South Africa's target from the original 45 overs would have been 273, which would then have been reduced to 257 from 43 overs, i.e. five runs more than they were set under the most productive overs rule. In a thrilling final, Pakistan beat England by 22 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), allowing the "cornered tigers" captain Imran Khan to lift the trophy. Derek Pringle took two early wickets for England before Imran Khan and Javed Miandad added 139 for the third wicket to steady the Pakistan innings – although both were very slow to score early on, and Imran benefited from a dropped catch just as he was trying to increase the tempo, having up to that point scored only 9 in 16 overs. Late flourishes from Inzamam-ul-Haq (42 off 35 balls) and Wasim Akram (33 off 18 balls) took Pakistan to a total of 6 for 249. England also struggled early in their innings with Mushtaq Ahmed's googly accounting for Graeme Hick. Neil Fairbrother and Allan Lamb then took England to 4 for 141 when Wasim Akram re-entered the attack and bowled from around the wicket. He bowled Lamb and Chris Lewis with consecutive deliveries. England fell 22 runs short with captain Imran Khan, in his final One Day International, taking the final wicket of Richard Illingworth to give Pakistan its first World Cup title.