Singer World Series 1996
The Singer World Series was a quadrangular ODI cricket tournament held in Sri Lanka from 26 August to 7 September 1996. It featured the national cricket teams of Zimbabwe, Australia, India and the hosts, Sri Lanka. The competition was won by Sri Lanka, which defeated Australia in the final.[1]
Background
The Singer World Series was the first major cricket tournament to be held in Sri Lanka after the 1996 Cricket World Cup. Security threats due to the Sri Lankan Civil War and potential terrorist attacks from the LTTE had led Australia to refuse to visit Sri Lanka for their scheduled match in the island nation. This time, Australia agreed to participate amidst intensive security arrangements.[1] Following their 1996 World Cup triumph, Sri Lanka had emerged as clear favourites. The Australian team was considered the most serious challenger to their prospects. Zimbabwe's struggling, lacklustre performances did not make them serious contenders. The Indian team had come off a string of successive ODI tournament defeats and a poor showing in their tour of England, which led to the replacement of the team captain Mohammad Azharuddin with his deputy, Sachin Tendulkar. The Singer World Series was to be Tendulkar's first ODI tournament leading the national team.
Squads
All three visiting sides had new captains, while Sri Lanka largely retained the team that had won the World Cup under veteran Arjuna Ranatunga's captaincy.[1]
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's 16-player squad was led by their new captain, Alistair Campbell, who had succeeded Andy Flower:[2]
- Alistair Campbell (captain)
- Eddo Brandes
- Grant Flower
- Mark Dekker
- Craig Evans
- Andy Flower (wicket-keeper)
- Charlie Lock
- Wayne James (reserve wicket-keeper]
- Mpumelelo Mbangwa
- Henry Olonga
- Ali Shah
- Bryan Strang
- Paul Strang
- Heath Streak
- Guy Whittall
- Craig Wishart
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's 14-player squad was largely unchanged from the one that had claimed the World Cup:[3]
- Arjuna Ranatunga (captain)
- Aravinda de Silva (vice-captain)
- Marvan Atapattu
- Upul Chandana
- Kumar Dharmasena
- Asanka Gurusinha
- Sanath Jayasuriya
- Romesh Kaluwitharana
- Roshan Mahanama
- Muttiah Muralitharan
- Ravindra Pushpakumara
- Hashan Tillakaratne
- Chaminda Vaas
- Pramodya Wickremasinghe
India
India had named a 14-player squad under the leadership of Sachin Tendulkar.[4] It featured two debutants - fast-bowler David Johnson and off-spin bowler Sunil Joshi. The squad were being coached by retired Indian pace bowler Madan Lal:
- Sachin Tendulkar (captain)
- Anil Kumble (vice-captain)
- Mohammad Azharuddin
- Javagal Srinath
- Rahul Dravid
- Venkatesh Prasad
- Sourav Ganguly
- Sunil Joshi
- David Johnson
- Vinod Kambli
- Aashish Kapoor
- Nayan Mongia (wicket-keeper)
- Ajay Jadeja
- Vikram Rathour
Australia
Owing to Mark Taylor's back injury, wicket-keeper Ian Healy took over as captain of Australia's 13-player squad for the series, which included the debutants fast-bowler Jason Gillespie, spin bowler Brad Hogg and batsman Darren Lehmann:[5]
- Ian Healy (captain, wicket-keeper)
- Michael Bevan
- Damien Fleming
- Jason Gillespie
- Brad Hogg
- Stuart Law
- Darren Lehmann
- Steve Waugh
- Glenn McGrath
- Ricky Ponting
- Paul Reiffel
- Michael Slater
- Mark Waugh
Points table
The tournament was organised in a round robin format, with each team playing each other once.
| Team | P | W | L | T | NR | NRR | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sri Lanka |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0.49 | 6 |
 Australia |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +0.74 | 4 |
 India |
3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -0.01 | 2 |
 Zimbabwe |
3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1.17 | 0 |
Matches
6 September Scorecard |
| v |
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- Australia won the toss and chose to field
- Originally scheduled for 5 September, the match was postponed due to rain. Match reduced to 45 overs maximum per innings on 6 September due to rain.
Final
7 September Scorecard |
| v |
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- Australia won the toss and chose to field
- Match was delayed by two hours due to rain. The match was thus reduced to 35 overs maximum per innings.
Records and awards
Sri Lanka's vice-captain Aravinda de Silva won the player of the series award for amassing 334 runs in just 4 innings without losing his wicket, remaining unbeaten in all of them.[1][7] Sri Lankan spin bowler Upul Chandana and Australian fast-bowler Glenn McGrath both took 7 wickets, but Chandana did so in only 3 matches to McGrath's 4.[8]
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Wisden - Singer World Series". Wisden. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
- ↑ "Zimbabwean squad". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
- 1 2 "Sri Lankan squad". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
- 1 2 "Indian squad". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
- 1 2 "Australia squad". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
- ↑ - Points Table
- ↑ "Batting Statistics". Cricinfo.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
- ↑ "Bowling Statistics". Cricinfo.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.