South Africa and Australia are most unlikely to be in the same pool sections for the 2003 Cricket World Cup to be played in South Africa.

Furthermore, it is planned that the South African team will play their six pool games at South Africa's six major venues around the country during February 2003.

According to Dr Ali Bacher, executive director of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the limited overs international results from the end of the last World Cup in England in 1999 to date suggest strongly that arch-rivals South Africa and Australia will head up separate groups. "These are the two top teams in world cricket and it is good that they are unlikely to meet each other too early in the tournament," said Dr Bacher. "By not being in the same pool, they can maximise their chances."

Dr Bacher also disclosed that to reward South Africa's Test venues for their contribution to cricket, it is only fitting that they each be allocated a South African pool game. After playing the opening World Cup game at Newlands on February 7, the South African team will go into action around the country at the other Test venues at Centurion, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Durban and Port Elizabeth.

The 2003 tournament will run from February 7 to March 19, 2003.

Based on results covering a 27-month period since June 1999, a seedings system will be adopted to decide the composition of the two seven-team sections. The pool sections will be finalised when the cut-off date is reached for limited overs international results at the end of September 2001 but indications are that the pools could look like this:

Pool A - Australia, Pakistan, England, West Indies, Zimbabwe, winner of the ICC Trophy, runner-up in the ICC Trophy.

Pool B - South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Kenya, ICC trophy third-place playoff winner.

For the 1999 World Cup, the pool sections were decided on how the teams finished at the previous World Cup tournament on the Indian subcontinent in 1996. In this way, South Africa and Australia found themselves in the same group. Since then, however, the International Cricket Council has adopted a South African proposal that the seedings system come into play on the basis of all results over a 27-month stretch.

According to current ratings, the qualified teams are rated as follows: 1 - Australia (win ratio 77.78%) 2 - South Africa (65.45%) 3 - Sri Lanka (61.54%) 4 - Pakistan (55.93%) 5 - England (47.83%) 6 - India (46.55%) 7 - New Zealand (40%) 8 - West Indies (36%) 9 - Zimbabwe (29.31%) 10 - Bangladesh (0%) 11- Kenya (0%).

As shown, the pools will also include those nations who achieve best results during the ICC Trophy tournament in Toronto next month. This tournament is contested by associate members of the ICC, among other such countries as Ireland, Holland, UAE, Scotland, Singapore, Denmark and Gibraltar.

Rodney Hartman

Communications Manager 2003 CWC

© 2003 CWC