The 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup: 


was the ninth edition of the tournament
and took place in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007,
using the sport's One Day International format. There were a total of
51 matches played, three fewer than at the 2003 World Cup (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, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa
won through to the semi-finals, with Australia defeating Sri Lanka in
the final to win their third consecutive World Cup. Australia's
unbeaten record in the tournament increased their total to 29
consecutive World Cup matches without loss, a streak dating back to 23
May 1999, during the group stage of the 1999 World Cup.Following the
tournament the ICC distributed surplus tournament revenues of USD 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 Cricket
World Cup has been held in the Caribbean despite the fact that the
West Indies cricket team have 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 Lauderhill,
Florida, but the ICC decided to award all matches to Caribbean
nations. Bids from Bermuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and a
second bid by Jamaica were also rejected.

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 is budgeted for 'off-the-pitch' expenses,
putting the tally at more than US$100 million or JM$7 billion.This put
the reconstruction cost of Sabina Park at US$46 million whilst the
Trelawny Stadium will cost US$35 million. The total amount of money
spent on stadiums was at least US$301 million.The Brian Lara Stadium,
in Trinidad, lost its status as a pre-tournament warm-up match venue
on 21 September 2006

Venues:

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

Media coverage:

The World Cup has 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 m.The 2007 World Cup
was televised in over 200 countries to a viewing audience estimated at
more than two billion television viewers and was expected to generate
more than 100,000 unique visitors to the West Indies who traveled
solely for the tournament.
The 2007 Cricket World Cup featured an orange raccoon-like creature
named "Mello" as its mascot. It has been announced during matches that
Mello has no race, species, age or gender- it is 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 Jamaican-born
Shaggy, Bajan entertainer Rupee and Trinidadian Fay-Ann Lyons.The 2007
tournament recorded the highest ticketing revenue for a Cricket World
Cup, selling more than 672,000.[11] Although, attendance leading into
the semi finals for the 2007 World Cup was 403,000; an average of
8,500 supporters per match.

Matches:

The matches were One Day Internationals and operated under normal ODI
rules. All matches were to be 50 overs 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 was dismissed before the
completion of 20 overs). In the event of bad weather, the
Duckworth-Lewis method was applied to determine the result or target.
If no result was declared on the scheduled day, the teams returned the
next 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.

System:

The tournament was preceded by a number of warm-up matches to
acclimatise 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
will also use a league system. Each team carried forward its result
against the other team qualifying from its preliminary stage group,
and will play the other six qualifying teams once each. The top four
teams in the league will qualify for the semi-finals. This system has
been modified since the last World Cup, which had a "Super 6" stage
rather than a Super 8. The Super 8 stage matches will be played from
Tuesday 27 March until Saturday 21 April. A total of 24 matches will
be played in the Super 8 stage.
The top four teams in the "Super 8" will advance to the Semi-Finals.
This is the knockout stage, with the #1 team playing the #4 team, and
the #2 team playing the #3 team in the tournament. The winners of the
two semi-finals will play each other in the Final.
All tournament matches will have 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.

Final Highlights:

2007 World Cup final was played between Srilanka and Australia. This
was the first World Cup final to be a repeat – the sides previously
met in the 1996 World Cup final, which Sri Lanka won. Australia has
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 sixth, their fourth in a row.Ricky Ponting 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. Adam Gilchrist
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 to
break.A large crowd of over 10,000 fans welcome the Australian team on
completing the first World Cup hat-trick - Martin Place, Sydney.While
Sri Lankan batsmen Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya were adding
116 for the second wicket, the contest was alive, but after the pair
got out, Sri Lanka's chances slowly washed way.Further rain forced the
reduction of Sri Lanka's innings to just 36 overs, with the target
revised to 269. At the culmination of the 33rd over, with Sri Lanka
still trailing the adjusted Duckworth-Lewis 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, Mahela Jayawardene agreed there was no need to return the
following day, and instructed his team to resume batting, with Ricky
Ponting agreeing to play only spinners. Umpires later apologized for
their error, and that the match should have ended then with Australia
winning by 37 runs.The last three overs were played in almost complete
darkness, during which Sri Lanka added nine runs, giving Australia a
53-run victory via the DL method, as Sri Lanka had batted 2 overs
fewer than Australia.

Australia won the tournament undefeated, concluding a streak of 29
World Cup games without a loss.Australian bowler Glenn McGrath was
named 'Player of the Series'.

Criticism:

The 2007 World Cup organizers were criticized early on for being
over-commercialized 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". Sir Viv Richards echoed the concerns.
The ICC were also condemned for high prices for tickets and
concessions, which were considered unaffordable for the local
population in many of the locations. ICC CEO, Malcolm Speed, said that
the ICC recognized the problem but said it was the local organizers'
fault. However, the later matches had more crowds as the tournament
progressed with the local organizers easing restrictions. Although
they did not meet the target of US$42m, the revenue from ticket sales
was double the ticket sales revenue from the last world cup and
recorded the highest ticketing revenue for a Cricket World Cup with
more than $32 million in ticket revenue.]
The World Cup was also criticized for its format, with India and
Pakistan failing to move on from the group stage after losing two
matches. This led to Ireland and Bangladesh entering the long Super
Eights stage and consistently being defeated (bar another upset by
Bangladesh over South Africa). The elimination of 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 BCCI later claimed it would see to it
that the ICC will alter its World Cup format for the 2011 Cricket
World Cup.
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 Michael Holding 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 George Salmond 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, during which the umpires suspended play due to bad light
and while official announcements and the scoreboard declared Australia
the winners and the Australian team celebrated, while the umpires
incorrectly insisted that the game was only suspended not completed,
and that 3 overs remained to be played. And so in farcical light
conditions, Sri Lanka batted out the 3 overs following a gentleman's
agreement between the two captains. The umpires and ICC apologized 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 Steve Bucknor and Aleem
Dar, reserve umpires Rudi Koertzen and Billy Bowden, and match referee
Jeff Crowe — would all be suspended from the 2007 Twenty20 World
Championship.

Death of Bob Woolmer:

Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer 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.