Cricket at the Commonwealth Games (1998 and 2022)

Men’s cricket was an event at the 1998 CWG at Kuala Lumpur. 16 countries took part, and India failed to get a medal. South Africa won the gold, followed by Australia (silver) and New Zealand (bronze). India did not get beyond the group stage. And these matches were List A, not ODIs

More details can be seen here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_at_the_Commonwealth_Games

That does not include scorecards and other details. They can be found here:

http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1998-99/OTHERS+ICC/CG1998/

We should be more concerned about the 2022 CWG, where the cricket is restricted to women’s T-20s. They do have T20I status, though that doesn’t mean much nowadays.

More details (including the match schedules) can be seen here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_at_the_2022_Commonwealth_Games

India is one of the 8 teams participating. Today India has an ICC ranking of 4 (after Australia, England and New Zealand) so one can think there is some chance of a medal. To get to the semi-final round India will have to finish 1st or 2nd in a pool which also includes Australia, Barbados and Pakistan.

Notes on the Commonwealth Games of 2018

This is a follow up to https://abn397.wordpress.com/2018/09/02/notes-on-the-asian-games-of-2018/ .

In recent years it has been apparent that the standard of the Asian Games is higher than that of the Commonwealth Games, so more attention is focused on the former. However, it is worth having a quick look at the 2018 CWG and India’s performance there and in earlier CWGs.

First, the 2018 medals tables:

https://sports.ndtv.com/commonwealth-games-2018/medals-tally

Note the large number of countries/territories which failed to win a single medal. The largest countries with this status are Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.

While Sri Lanka and Bangladesh drew a blank in the Asian Games later in the year, they did win something here.

Here is how India has fared in the CWG over the years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_at_the_Commonwealth_Games

It can be seen that India’s best performance was when they were hosts in 2010, and that they have slipped somewhat since then.

And finally, the one occasion that cricket featured in the CWG. In this 1998 Games at Kuala Lumpur, India participated with a second-string team. So did several other countries. These 50-over matches had List A status but were not classified as ODIs. India did not win a medal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_at_the_1998_Commonwealth_Games

This was the first time that South Africa won a major cricket tournament (though this was not taken seriously by cricket followers). They did however win the first ICC Knock-out championship in 1999. This championship became the Champions Trophy in subsequent years. They are still waiting for another major tournament win.