The 1996 World Cup can be said to be the beginning of the modern era in cricket. The balance of power shifted irrevocably in favour of batsmen, with flat pitches burying all but the best bowlers. It was also the first Cup for a lot of stalwarts who have retired over the past four or five years, and one or two who are nearing the end of their careers.
Australia's spin legend Shane Warne, Mark Waugh, Ricky Ponting and fast bowling great Glenn McGrath played their first Cup in 1996. Shane Warne and Mark Waugh were the most successful of the newcomers. Mark Waugh was second in the run charts with 484 runs. He was also the first batsman to score successive hundreds in a World Cup, and the first to score three in the global tournament. Shane Warne finished joint third on the wickets table with twelve scalps, including a match-winning four-wicket haul in the semifinals against the Windies.
The stodgy Shivnarine Chanderpaul made his Cup debut, and marked it with a mature 80 in the semifinal against Australia that almost took the Windies through to the final. Pakistan presented Waqar Younis (who had been playing for seven years but had missed the last World Cup due to a back injury) and off-spinning wizard Saqlain Mushtaq. Although he did finish second on the wickets table with thirteen wickets, it wasn't a happy tournament for Waqar, as he was taken for a match-turning forty off his last two overs by Ajay Jadeja in the all-important quarterfinal against archrivals India.
Other notable first-timers were England's Darren Gough and Graham Thorpe, South Africa's Gary Kirsten and Shaun Pollock, and New Zealand's future captain Stephen Fleming. Gary Kirsten recorded the highest individual innings in World Cups when he scored an unbeaten 188 against U.A.E in Rawalpindi.
Javed Miandad, who came back into the Pakistan side after a long layoff, played the last of his six World Cups, a record for most World Cups played that is set to be equalled by Sachin Tendulkar in 2011. It was also the last for Craig McDermott who bowled three overs before returning home with a calf strain.
In the '96 World Cup, the Indian maestro Sachin Tendulkar started the journey that would see him hailed as the best batsman on the planet for the best part of the next decade. He scored two hundreds and three fifties en route to becoming the highest run-scorer in the tournament with 523 runs. His century against Sri Lanka in the group stage was a classic; pacing the innings beautifully before taking 23 off a Pushpakumara over at the death. Another memorable innings was when he scored an 84-ball 90 against an Aussie team that included Glenn MsGrath, Shane Warne and Damien Fleming. It is a comment on the other Indian players that they lost both those matches.
But stealing the show was the man placed third in the batting charts, Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva. The diminutive batsman scored two hundreds in his tally of 448 runs, one of them in the final against Australia. He was also a valuable contributor with his offspin, as he showed with one of the most dominant performances in a final with three wickets to add to his century. He dominated the semifinal too, coming in at two wickets down with only one on the board he smashed the Indians all over the park in his 47-ball 66 to seize the momentum. His countryman Sanath Jayasuriya forever changed one-day opening batting with his crippling onslaughts during the fielding restrictions.
Spin dominated the wickets chart, which is to be expected of a tournament in the subcontinent. Three of the top five wicket-takers were spinners, with India's Anil Kumble taking 15 wickets from seven games. Waqar Younis was in second place with thirteen from six. The best bowling figures belonged to Zimbabwean leg-spinner Paul Strang when he took five wickets for 21 runs against Kenya at Patna.
The leading wicketkeeper for the tournament was Ian Healy of Australia with twelve dismissals, and in second place was Pakistan's Rashid Latif with nine.