The 1999 World Cup Super Six format that made some wins worthless
At the 1999 Cricket World Cup, beating a weak team in your group could count for nothing. A new Super Six stage threw away results against sides that failed to advance, so what really mattered was how you had fared against the other qualifiers, and Australia started that round with zero points.
England hosted the seventh edition, only three years after the previous tournament instead of the customary four, with a few matches staged in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands. Twelve teams played 42 games. England and the eight other Test nations qualified automatically; the last three places went to Kenya, Bangladesh and Scotland through the 1997 ICC Trophy in Malaysia, contested by 22 nations. Scotland played two group matches at home, making it the first associate member to host World Cup games.
The format was the real novelty. Two groups of six each sent their top three into the Super Sixes, where every qualifier met the three from the opposite group. Points earned against fellow qualifiers from your own group came along with you; everything else was discarded. Australia finished second in its group yet carried nothing forward, because its defeats had come against New Zealand and Pakistan, both of whom went through. India landed in the same hole after losing to Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Australia recovered anyway. It edged past South Africa into the final on the strength of having beaten them in their head-to-head Super Six game, finishing higher in the table, and then crushed Pakistan by eight wickets at Lord's.
Bowlers also had a new toy: a white Duke ball, used at a World Cup for the first time. Its maker insisted it behaved just like earlier balls, but tests found it harder and more prone to swing. Off the field, the BBC shared live coverage with Sky, screening the final, and then showed no live cricket at all until August 2020.
Source: 1999 Cricket World Cup
