BULAWAYO, March 4: The 2003 World Cup has been the most talked about tournament in terms of controversies and results. It has all the ingredients of being the most controversial of the eight editions of the competition.

First it was political overtures that made the headlines. Three white playing nations England, Australia and New Zealand threatened to boycott matches played in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Australia backed down and fulfilled their engagement against Zimbabwe. It was not the case for England and New Zealand.

New Zealand refused to play in Nairobi citing security reasons and England following suit giving Zimbabwe four points for the same reasons. The loss of four points proved fatal for England who were eliminated. New Zealand just squeezed into Super Six but face almost an impossible task to earn a semifinal berth.

But the biggest shock for cricketing fraternity was to come just before Australia’s opening match against Pakistan when spin magician ‘Shame’ Warne had the dubious distinction of becoming the first international cricketer banned for one year for taking prohibited performance enhancing drug following a positive dope test.

Later surfaced the ugly face of racial slur. Australian vice-captain and wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist alleged that his Pakistani counterpart, Rashid Latif, made racist remarks during the match at the Wanderers on Feb 11. The game’s ruling body International Cricket Conference (ICC) thankfully exonerated Rashid for no credible evidence.

Not to be left out from the headlines, Sri Lankans, winners of 1996, threatened to boycott the competition if one of their requests over tournament rules were not acceded to. It proved no more than a threat as the Islanders backed down when ICC put its foot down and turned their demand. Coming to the action on the field there have been some shock results, Kenya upsetting Sri Lanka and qualify for the Super Six which was hardly expected before the competition started. But worse was to follow as hosts South Africa, Pakistan and West Indies were dumped out of the next stage with less fancied teams Zimbabwe and New Zealand advancing to the Super Six joining Kenya.

Another aspect of the on-going cricket showpiece has been once again the failure of the host nation to win the game’s top prize. Ever since the first edition of the World Cup was played in 1975 the competition has been a graveyard for the host nations.

While the nation of 42 million is still in shock over its team’s failure to reach the second stage, something unthinkable before the start of the competition. But it happened on Monday night when Shaun Pollock and his boys effort to rescue the sinking boat came to nothing by a fighting Sri Lanka and rains that spoiled what could have been the match of the tournament.

So far England on four occasions (1975, 1979, 1983, 1999), India and Pakistan twice (1987, 1996), Australia (19992) and now South Africa failed in their quest to win at home. Whether the trend will change in 2007 in the Caribbean only the time will tell.