To read the inside story of England’s miserable 1999 campaign, including the reflections of Alec Stewart, David Lloyd and Adam Hollioake, pick up a copy of the Wisden Cricket Monthly World Cup special
Jo Harman, magazine editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly, remembers his favourite match at the Men’s Cricket World Cup: England’s nine-wicket win over Kenya in 1999.
A strange choice for an England fan, perhaps, given that it took place in the most disastrous of all their disastrous World Cup campaigns. Even more so when you consider that in its own way this match contributed to the hosts exiting the tournament just 16 days after it had started – and 24 hours before the release of the official World Cup song – despite Alec Stewart’s side cruising to a nine-wicket win.
It didn’t feel like that at the time though. It felt like the start of something special.
Four days later England were torn apart by Allan Donald at The Oval, and a week after that they were dumped out of the competition, edged out on net run rate by Zimbabwe following another comprehensive defeat, this time to India at Edgbaston. With three weeks of the tournament still to play, England’s players were heading back to their counties. Five of the 15-man squad never played another ODI.
“There are honourable defeats, unfortunate defeats and then ignominious defeats,” reported The Times following England’s loss to India. “The manner by which England’s interest in the World Cup ended yesterday rests, unfortunately, in the final category.”
I guess the fact that England’s lackadaisical chase at Canterbury helped conspire to knock them out of the tournament should have taken some sheen off that match for me, but it didn’t really. It made it all the more memorable. Canterbury’s short chapter in England’s tale of World Cup woe.
