2003 Cricket World Cup: A Philatelic glimpse
The 2019 Cricket World starts on 20 May 2019. In the coming weeks up to the start of the World Cup, we shall cover the World Cups held till now in the form of a Philatelic (Stamps) tour.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) organizes the cricket World Cup. The 2003 Cricket World Cup was jointly hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. The tournament was held from 09 February to 23 March 2003. This World Cup faced numerous challenges but the event was completed in great style.
The number of participating teams increased to 14 (10 Test Playing nations, Kenya as Full one-day status team and three qualifiers from the ICC Trophy 2001 held in Canada, namely The Netherlands, Canada & Namibia). These teams were divided into two groups with top three teams qualifying for Supex Sixes stage. Australia, India, Kenya & Sri Lanka qualified for the semi-finals being top four teams of Super Six stage.
Australia beat Sri Lanka to qualify for the Finals and Indian team boosted by performances of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath, and Ashish Nehra beat Kenya to enter finals. Australia beat India by 125 runs in the Final to lift the trophy.
Philatelic Coverage of the World Cup- Sachin Tendulkar was named the Player of Series and he scored the highest number of runs (673) in the World Cup.
Mascot - The Collective noun for Zebras is "Dazzle" and that was named as the official Mascot for the 2003 cricket World Cup. South Africa issued a set of stamps on Dazzle on 23 September 2002.
South Africa also issued a set of six stamps in the form of a unique miniature sheet which features various scenes associated with the preparations and run-up to the hosting of the World Cup.
