A decade on from the Zimbabwe debacle

[davidmutton]

Cricket Web - Features: A decade on from the Zimbabwe debacle

David Mutton re-examines the furore of England's boycott of their opening fixture in the 2003 World Cup.

 

[stumpski]

Yeah, remember it well. I was torn for a while, but in the end I was pleased that we didn't go to Zimbabwe, even though it ended up costing us a Super Six place. We should have beaten Australia of course.

Can 2003 be considered the first Internet world Cup? I would guess that not that many supporters were on line four years earlier. I just missed out, I didn't get Internet access till later that year but I expect many of you had it. CW was in existence by then of course.

 

[honestbharani]

I joined the forum in 2004 I think.. so I just missed it.

 

[davidmutton]

Interestingly (well, sort of interestingly) I think Cricinfo covered the 1996 World Cup in some depth, with live scorecards and ball-by-ball commentaries. There can't have been that many people online to follow it though.

 

[Bahnz]

The first time that I can clearly remember using cricinfo to follow test cricket was during the 01/02 VB series, and that was because they had a link to the audio of the Channel 9 coverage (sadly didn't last beyond that series), but I was definitely aware of its existence before that point - just didn't use the internet that much.

 

[Crazy Sam]

2000 would've been the latest that I started looking up cricket online, because I can recall baggygreen.com.au being flogged on Channel 9 back then. In fact it was probably earlier as I recall visiting Cricinfo prior to then.

As for the 2003 world cup, Kenya making the semi finals was amusing to say the least.