Sixteen teams entered the competition, including seven of the nine then Test-playing nations: West Indies did not enter as mentioned above, while England declined to send a team at all, on the grounds that the September date chosen clashed with other fixtures such as the end of the County Championship.
The competition schedule for the cricket tournament was as follows:[6]
Legend
G
Group stage
½
Semi-finals
B
Bronze medal match
F
Gold medal match
Schedule
Date
Event
Wed 9
Thu 10
Fri 11
Sat 12
Sun 13
Mon 14
Tues 15
Wed 16
Thu 17
Fri 18
Sat 19
Men
G
G
G
G
G
G
1⁄2
1⁄2
B
F
Two days of matches were played before the opening ceremony on Friday 11 September. All matches began at 10:00 am with the lunch interval scheduled between 1:30 and 2:15 pm and the afternoon session running until 5:45 pm, with the exception of the bronze medal match which began 30 minutes earlier. Sunday 20 September was designated as a reserve day.[6][7]
The final five slots were determined by the final placings in the 1997 ICC Trophy also played in Malaysia 18 months prior. The first three teams were Bangladesh, who would go on to achieve ICC full member status in 2000, Kenya and Scotland. All three teams also achieved a berth in the 1999 Cricket World Cup. The Irish cricket team finish fourth, but with the team representing all of Ireland, Northern Ireland was given the slot. Denmark and the Netherlands, two non-Commonwealth nations finished fifth and sixth so the final place with was achieved by Canada who finished seventh.[12]
Prior to the Games, Glenn McGrath was ruled out of Australia's squad due to injury with Andy Bichel named as his replacement.[34][b]Basit Ali withdrew from the Pakistani squad after his brother suffered a heart attack.[38][39]Wajahatullah Wasti was named as his replacement.[29]Lance Klusener withdrew from the South African squad after sustaining an ankle injury during the third Test of South Africa's tour of England in July.[40]Adam Bacher was also unavailable for the Games, suffering an injury to his shoulder.[41] They were replaced by Alan Dawson and Andrew Hudson, respectively.[42][5]
Players who were unavailable for selection include New Zealand paceman Simon Doull due to a groin strain,[43] Australian leg spinner Shane Warne due to a shoulder injury[44] and New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns due to knee surgery.[45]
Several warm-up matches were played prior to the tournament commencing. The Pakistan Cricket Board arranged for two matches to played at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore between the squad that was to compete at the Games against the squad that would contest the 1998 'Friendship' Cup with the both squads winning one match each.[47][48] South Africa played the provincial team of KwaZulu-Natal at City Oval in Pietermaritzburg securing a narrow victory.[49] New Zealand played four warm-up matches, three against New South Wales and one against Australia, losing all four. The matches were played at John Blanck Oval in Buderim, Queensland.[50][51][52][53][54][55] Australia were defeated by an Australian Cricket Academy XI at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane[36][b] before travelling up to Buderim where they also played New South Wales and the match against New Zealand, winning both.[37][55] Finally, the only warm-up match that was played in Malaysia was contested between the hosts and Bangladesh where rain prevented a result from being achieved.[56]
The competing teams were divided into four groups of four teams, denoted as groups A, B, C and D. Teams in each group played one another in a round-robin basis, with only the top team of each group advancing to the knock out semi finals and play-offs for the gold and bronze medals.
Sri Lanka won all three of their games to qualify for the semi-finals. A straightforward seven-wicket victory over Malaysia (who collapsed from 87/3 to 109 all out; Sri Lanka reached 112/3) was followed by a 67-run win over Jamaica with Gunawardene hitting 107 (Sri Lanka 211/5; Jamaica 144/8), before a decider against Zimbabwe. The Africans reached 265/7 (Campbell 82, Goodwin 55); in reply, Sri Lanka stumbled to 110/5 before Hathurusingha (60) and de Saram (75*) brought them close to victory at 258/6. Streak then took three quick wickets, but the last pair survived to give Sri Lanka a one-wicket win.
In the other Group A games, Zimbabwe (144/4) beat Jamaica (142 all out) by six wickets, with an unbeaten 55 from Evans. Zimbabwe then scored 309/9 (Flower 70, Evans 59, Goodwin 53) as they crushed Malaysia (88 all out; Nkala 3–6) by 221 runs. The wooden spoon game saw Malaysia crumble to 83 all out thanks to 4–13 from Cunningham, losing by six wickets to Jamaica (87/4).
Sri Lanka qualified for the semi-finals and Zimbabwe were eliminated as a result of this match.
Group B
Australia scored three wins out of three in this group. First came a nine wicket win over Canada who scored only 60 all out (Fleming 4–17); the Australians made 61/1 in 14 overs.[64] In their second match, Antigua and Barbuda were dismissed for 99; Australia made 101/3 in reply. Finally, against India, Australia scored a total of 255/5, followed by India who stuttered to 109 all out.
Antigua and Barbuda scored 164/9 (a recovery from 77/7) in a 41-over match against India, but rain fell with India 30/2 in reply and the match was declared a no-result. India's Khurasiya scored 83 against Canada in a total of 157/9, with Kumble then claiming 4–11 as the Canadians were dismissed for 45. Antigua and Barbuda (256/7) beat Canada (135 all out), with Lake making 54 before retiring hurt and then taking 4–17; Walsh also made 51 for the Antiguans.
Antigua and Barbuda won the toss and elected to bat.
The match was reduced before play started to 41 overs per side due to overnight rain.[65] Rain prevented any further play after 9.4 overs were bowled in the second innings.[66]
Amay Khurasiya was removed in stretcher after he collapsed due to dehydration while fielding. Rohan Gavaskar substituted for him. He couldn't bat during the Indian innings.[72]
Points: Australia 2, India 0.
Australia qualified for the semi-finals and India were eliminated as a result of this match.
Group C
Honours in this group went to South Africa, who started off against Northern Ireland. The Northern Irish had reached 89/5 from 38.1 overs when it rained, and the Duckworth–Lewis method was used to calculate a target of 131 from 38 overs for the South Africans, who won by making 133/6. South Africa then bowled out Bangladesh for 79 and made 80/5 for a five-wicket victory. In South Africa's final match, Barbados set 254/6 (Wallace 74), but 71 from Kallis and 54 from Gibbs saw their opponents make 257/6 with ten balls remaining.
Barbados (160/6 in 41.3 overs) beat Bangladesh (144/7 in 47 overs, Shahriar Hossain 70*) under the Duckworth–Lewis method, and then beat Northern Ireland by 176 runs. Scores of 92 from Wallace, 66 from Griffith and 60 from Campbell contributed to a score of 296/5, which the Northern Irish never got anywhere near despite Smyth's 58, scoring just 120/7. However, Northern Ireland came back well to beat Bangladesh by 114 runs: the Northern Irish made 177 (McCallan 53) before Cooke took 5–35, as Bangladesh were dismissed for 63.[73]
South Africa qualified for the semi-finals and Barbados were eliminated as a result of this match.
Group D
One-day specialists New Zealand won all their matches in Group D, beginning with a comfortable five-wicket win over Kenya (Kenya 144/8; New Zealand 145/5) before an even more straightforward success against Scotland. The New Zealanders amassed 278/6 (Fleming 102, Parore 87), then Harris took 4–25 as Scotland could manage only 101 all out. Finally the Kiwis won the crunch match against Pakistan by 81 runs: New Zealand's 215/8 was boosted by 66 from Fleming despite Shoaib Akhtar's 4–47, but only three Pakistanis (and extras) reached double figures as they lost their last six wickets for 21 runs, being bowled out for 134 to slide to an 81-run defeat.
Pakistan had earlier been frustrated by rain against Scotland; they had scored 201/5 from their 50 overs (Akhtar Sarfraz 66*) and had reduced the Scots to 31/3 when the weather intervened. The Pakistanis did beat Kenya, however: Odoyo's 4–39 had restricted them to 189/8, but Arshad Khan's 4–14 and Javed Qadeer's five catches behind the stumps helped Pakistan to a 129-run win as they dismissed the Africans for only 60. Odumbe took 5–38 as Kenya kept Scotland down to 156/8; they then made 157/5 to win with 12.3 overs in hand.
A low-scoring game produced a thrilling climax. Gunawardene's 53 held the Sri Lankan innings together after they had been put in to bat by the South Africans, but Boje's List A career best 4/16 kept the Sri Lankans' score down to a distinctly unimpressive 130 as they were bowled out in 44 overs. In reply, South Africa lost wickets at regular intervals, with the highest score being opener Rindel's 25. At 96/9 all looked lost, but then Boje (20*) and Dawson (15*) compiled an unbroken stand of 35 for the last wicket to lead their team to 131/9 and a one-wicket victory.[88]
A totally one-sided trans-Tasman clash saw New Zealand collapse to a feeble 58 all out after being sent in, with only captain Fleming reaching 20. Australian slow left-armer Brad Young took a hat-trick to finish with an exceptional bowling analysis of 4/4 from his 4 overs. In reply, the Australians scored just under six runs an over, losing only Mark Waugh as they raced to 62/1 in 10.5 overs and won easily.[89]
New Zealand recovered from the trauma of their semi-final thrashing to beat Sri Lanka by 51 runs. 56 not out from Harris and 56 from Astle were the main elements of a final total of 212/7 that included three run-outs. The Sri Lankans struggled to 77/7 in their innings, and though they added 53 for the eighth wicket thanks to Perera's 45, it was never likely to be enough and they were bowled out for 161.[90]
The crowd of 7,532 was the largest recorded crowd for a cricket match in Malaysia.[91]
This marked the first championship for South Africa at an ICC global event or a global multi-sport event. However, the matches did not have ODI status.
Put in by South Africa after losing the toss, the Australians were indebted to captain Steve Waugh's unbeaten 90 as they recovered from 58/4 to post a still below-par 183 all out. Opposing captain Pollock was the chief destroyer for South Africa, with 4–19 from nine tight overs to remove Mark Waugh, Ponting, Gilchrist and Lehmann. South Africa got off to a good start in their reply with an opening partnership of 73 between Rindel (67) and Hudson (36). A burst of wickets from Lehmann (3–14) saw the South Africans wobble as they fell from 158/2 to 183/6, but the Proteas did not lose another wicket and Kallis' watchful 44 from 96 balls saw South Africa through to 184/6 and the gold medal with four overs to spare.[91]
Gold medal-winning South African captain Pollock praised the Commonwealth experience while recalling his time at the Games for ESPNcricinfo.[94]
The success of the IPL led to a T20 tournament in the Commonwealth Games and later the Olympics being considered.[95] The president of the Commonwealth Games Federation wanted to bring cricket back into the games, and the Glasgow bid for the 2014 games had indicated that they would include cricket, but it did not materialise. The ICC then rejected an offer for cricket to feature in the 2018 games on the Gold Coast,[96] but a T20 women's tournament was held at Edgbaston for the 2022 games in Birmingham.
The next year at the 141st IOC Session in Mumbai in October 2023, cricket was added to the Olympic program in the form of men's and women's T20 events beginning in Los Angeles in 2028. It marks the first appearance of cricket as an Olympic sport since Paris in 1900.[97]
^"Stewart rates Astle, Fleming". The Press. Independent Newspapers. 26 September 1998. Archived from the original on 7 January 2025. Retrieved 9 January 2025 – via ESPNcricinfo.
^"All-round performance by Malik". Dawn. Dawn Media Group. 29 August 1998. Archived from the original on 8 January 2025. Retrieved 9 January 2025 – via ESPNcricinfo.
^"Fleming fears Kenyan surprise". The Press. Independent Newspapers. 31 August 1998. Archived from the original on 1 September 2004. Retrieved 9 January 2025 – via ESPNcricinfo.
