1992 cricket World Cup
The Cricket World Cup in 1992 (aka Benson & Hedges Cup) was the fifth edition of the tournament. It was held from February 22 to March 25, 1992 in Australia and New Zealand.
The 1991-92 cricket season was a first in many aspects:
- Day/night matches were introduced.
- White cricket balls and coloured team uniforms for one-dayers introduced.
- Third umpires (off-field, apart from the two on-field umpires) to decide run-outs based on TV replays were introduced.
- A controversial system of recalculating team totals for a reduced number of overs for matches affected by rain was introduced. See external link for rain-rules.
- It was the first World Cup to feature African test nations:
- South Africa returned from a 22 year old ban on cricketing relations with it.
- Zimbabwe also gained test status.
- It was the first World Cup held in the Southern hemisphere.
- Many new techniques were invented
- pinch-hitters (Batsmen sent in the early stages (higher order) to step up the run-rate by hitting the ball all around).
- New Zealand opening with spin-bowlers to confuse the batsmen higher order who are used fast bowlers trying to extract much speed with the new ball.
The format was changed from 1987 to accommodate South Africa. 9 countries participated in the event. In the league stage every team played every other team. This resulted in the huge increase in the number of matches as there weren't groups. The top four teams qualified for the semifinals, whose winners played the final.
The countries participating were all Test nations:
The 1992 World Cup was lifted by Imran Khan, captain of Pakistan, who won against England by 22 runs in the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), after initially faltering and barely managing to qualify for the semifinal. The other semifinalists were New Zealand and South Africa. Incidentally South Africa lost to England after a target of 22 runs off 19 balls was revised to 21 off 1 ball due to rain.The farcical Rain rule had thus robbed South Africa of an appearance in the final of their first World Cup.
A notable feature of this World cup was the innovative tactics employed by New Zealand captain Martin Crowe, who opened his teams bowling with a spinner, Dipak Patel rather than with a quickie, as was the practice. Another innovation was the opening of the New Zealand batting by pinch hitters, however credit for this should actually go to India, who regularly opened their batting with the flamboyant Krishnamachari Srikanth even before this World Cup.
