India vs Pakistan
1999-02-07
On February 7, 1999, Anil Kumble took all ten Pakistani second-innings wickets — 10 for 74 in 26.3 overs — to become only the second bowler in Test history to claim a 'Perfect Ten' after Jim Laker (1956). India won by 212 runs.
South Africa
1999-06-17
At the 1999 World Cup, Lance Klusener became one of cricket's great individual stories — 281 runs at an average of 140.50 and a strike rate of 122, plus 17 wickets at 20.58. He won four Player of the Match awards in nine matches. Yet South Africa exited at the semi-final stage in the famous Edgbaston tied semi.
Bangladesh vs Pakistan
1999-05-31
On May 31, 1999, Bangladesh — playing in their debut World Cup — beat tournament favourites Pakistan by 62 runs at Northampton. Khaled Mahmud (3/31 and 27 with the bat) was Player of the Match. The result remains shrouded in match-fixing suspicion that Pakistan's later Justice Qayyum report partially supported.
Australia vs Pakistan
1999-11-22
On November 22, 1999 in only his second Test, Adam Gilchrist made an unbeaten 149 to chase down 369 against Pakistan at Bellerive Oval. He and Justin Langer added an unbroken 238 for the sixth wicket — Australia won by 4 wickets and Gilchrist's wicketkeeper-batter revolution was launched.
West Indies vs Australia
1999-03-04
In February 1999 Mark Taylor retired and Steve Waugh became Australia's Test captain. His first series — the Caribbean tour — was a 2-2 dramatic draw featuring Brian Lara's 213 and 153 not out. From there Waugh built the most dominant Test team in cricket history, including a record 16 consecutive Test wins.
Pakistan vs New Zealand
1999-06-16
On June 16, 1999, Saeed Anwar carried his bat through Pakistan's innings, scoring 113 not out off 148 balls to set up a nine-wicket win over New Zealand at Old Trafford and put Pakistan into the World Cup final. It was his second hundred in successive World Cup matches, after 103 against Zimbabwe four days earlier — a feat previously achieved only by Mark Waugh in 1996.
Australia vs South Africa
17 June 1999
South Africa's Lance Klusener hit two fours off successive balls to bring the scores level, but a catastrophic run out of Allan Donald off the last ball sent Australia through on net run rate in one of cricket's greatest ever finishes.
India vs Pakistan
8 June 1999
Sachin Tendulkar was given out caught behind in the high-stakes India-Pakistan World Cup match despite replays suggesting the ball brushed his pad, not bat.
Australia vs South Africa
17 June 1999
Allan Donald was run out in the most dramatic fashion in the 1999 World Cup semi-final, but South Africa argued the initial call by the square leg umpire was premature.
Sri Lanka vs England
23 January 1999
Umpire Ross Emerson called Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing. Captain Arjuna Ranatunga nearly led his team off the field in protest.
Pakistan vs Various
1 June 1999
Leaked audio cassettes containing conversations between Pakistani players and bookmakers provided crucial evidence for the Qayyum Commission and proved fixing in Pakistani cricket.
India vs South Africa
1999-06-05
Herschelle Gibbs dropped a catch off Sachin Tendulkar after celebrating prematurely, reportedly prompting Tendulkar to tell him 'You've just dropped the World Cup, mate.'
West Indies vs Australia
1999-03-29
Brian Lara and Jimmy Adams were involved in one of cricket's most comically bad run-out mix-ups, with both batsmen ending up at the same end while the fielders watched in amusement.
Pakistan vs Australia
1998-10-16
On October 16, 1998, Australian captain Mark Taylor finished day two of the Peshawar Test on 334 not out — equalling Don Bradman's highest Australian Test score. The next morning he declared without batting on, choosing the team's chances of victory over the chance to break Bradman's record alone.
South Africa vs West Indies
1998-11-01
On November 1, 1998 in Dhaka, South Africa beat West Indies by four wickets in the inaugural ICC KnockOut Trophy final — the tournament that would become the Champions Trophy. It was also the first ICC senior tournament hosted by Bangladesh, a strategic gift to the Test-aspirant nation.
Australia
1998-12-08
On December 8, 1998, the Australian Cricket Board revealed that Mark Waugh and Shane Warne had been fined in 1995 for accepting cash from an Indian bookmaker named 'John' (later identified as Mukesh Gupta) in exchange for pitch and weather information. The ACB had concealed the fines for three years. The cover-up became a bigger scandal than the original incident.
West Indies
1998-11-05
On November 5, 1998, West Indies' touring squad — heading to South Africa for their first post-apartheid tour — refused to board the connecting flight from London to Johannesburg. Captain Brian Lara and vice-captain Carl Hooper led nine players in a stand-off with the West Indies Cricket Board over allowances and tour fees. The team holed up at Heathrow's Excelsior Hotel for almost a week. The board sacked Lara and Hooper, then reinstated them, and the squad arrived in South Africa demoralised and unprepared. They lost the Test series 5-0.
India vs Australia
22 April 1998
In the first of the two Sharjah finals, Sachin Tendulkar was given out LBW to a ball that appeared to be heading down leg. The decision denied fans a potentially historic innings.
India vs Australia
6-10 March 1998
Michael Slater claimed a low catch to dismiss Sachin Tendulkar, but replays suggested the ball had bounced before reaching his hands. The on-field decision was out.
Various
1 January 1998
Sharjah cricket, which hosted numerous ODI tournaments from 1985 to 2003, became widely associated with match fixing, with allegations of underworld figures including Dawood Ibrahim influencing results.
India vs Pakistan
1997-05-21
On May 21, 1997, Saeed Anwar slammed 194 off 146 balls against India in Chennai, breaking Viv Richards' 13-year-old record (189 not out vs England 1984) for the highest individual score in an ODI. He hit 22 fours and 5 sixes and used a runner for half of his innings.
Sri Lanka vs India
1997-08-06
On August 6, 1997 at Colombo's R Premadasa Stadium, Sri Lanka declared at 952 for 6 — the highest team total in Test history. Sanath Jayasuriya made 340; Roshan Mahanama 225. Their second-wicket partnership of 576 was a then-Test world record. The Test was drawn.
India (internal)
1 January 1997
Sachin Tendulkar's brief and unhappy stint as India captain in the late 1990s, replacing Azharuddin, was marked by poor results, factional politics, and the eventual return of captaincy to Azharuddin.
India vs Pakistan
15 October 1997
Inzamam-ul-Haq charged into the crowd with a bat after being persistently taunted by an Indian spectator with a megaphone during a Sahara Cup match in Toronto.
India vs Pakistan
15 September 1997
Inzamam-ul-Haq climbed into the crowd with a bat to confront a spectator who had been abusing him during the Sahara Cup match in Toronto.
India vs Various
1 May 1997
Former Indian all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar alleged widespread fixing in Indian cricket and claimed Kapil Dev had offered him money to underperform, triggering a major investigation.
India vs Pakistan
1997-09-14
Inzamam-ul-Haq stormed into the crowd with his bat after being heckled by a spectator in Toronto.
England vs Various
1997-01-01
Phil 'The Cat' Tufnell was so bad at fielding that his nickname was ironic — he earned it for his ability to sleep anywhere, not for his agility.
Sri Lanka vs Australia / West Indies
1996-02-17
After a Tamil Tigers truck bomb killed 91 people at Colombo's Central Bank on January 31, 1996, both Australia and West Indies refused to travel to Sri Lanka for their 1996 World Cup group matches. The ICC awarded Sri Lanka both games on forfeit — a decision that propelled the eventual champions into the knockouts unbeaten on points.
Australia vs Sri Lanka
1996-03-17
On March 17, 1996 at Gaddafi Stadium, Aravinda de Silva made an unbeaten 107 (and took 3 for 42) as Sri Lanka beat Australia by 7 wickets to win their first World Cup. He was Player of the Match and Player of the Tournament; Sri Lanka became the first host country to win a World Cup.
India vs Pakistan
1996-03-09
On March 9, 1996, Pakistan's Aamer Sohail cut Venkatesh Prasad for four, then pointed his bat at the boundary as if to say 'I'll do it again'. Next ball Prasad bowled him, then animatedly waved him off the field. The send-off became the defining image of the India-Pakistan 1996 World Cup quarter-final, won by India by 39 runs.
Sri Lanka
1996-02-21
At the 1996 World Cup, Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga promoted Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana to open the batting and instructed them to attack the new ball during the fielding restrictions. The strategy — 'pinch-hitting' — produced unprecedented scoring rates and revolutionised ODI cricket.
England vs India
1996-06-22
On June 22, 1996, Sourav Ganguly (131) became only the third batter to score a Test hundred on debut at Lord's, while Rahul Dravid fell five short of a debut century with 95. The pair added 94 for the fifth wicket — the first chapter in a partnership that would underpin Indian cricket for the next 15 years.
Pakistan
1996-09-15
In the mid-1990s, Pakistan off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq developed the doosra — a delivery that turned away from a right-hand batter while looking like a stock off-break. Pakistan keeper Moin Khan named it 'doosra' (the other one); the delivery transformed off-spin and triggered a decade of chucking debates.
Zimbabwe vs England
1996-12-22
The first Test between Zimbabwe and England at Bulawayo in December 1996 ended in a draw with the scores level — the first ever in Test history. Coach David 'Bumble' Lloyd, frustrated by Zimbabwe's defensive tactics, told a press conference 'we flippin' murdered em'. He was reprimanded by the ECB.
India vs Sri Lanka
1996-03-13
On March 13, 1996, an estimated 110,000 spectators at Eden Gardens watched India collapse from 98/1 to 120/8 chasing 252 against Sri Lanka. As the Indian innings disintegrated, sections of the crowd set fire to the stands and threw bottles onto the field. Match referee Clive Lloyd halted play, returned briefly, and finally awarded the semi-final to Sri Lanka. Vinod Kambli walked off in tears.
Sri Lanka vs Various
1 January 1996
Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action was questioned repeatedly over a decade, leading to fundamental changes in cricket's throwing laws and biomechanical testing protocols.
India vs Sri Lanka
13 March 1996
The 1996 World Cup semi-final at Eden Gardens was effectively decided by the match referee after the crowd rioted when India collapsed in the chase.
India vs Sri Lanka
13 March 1996
The 1996 World Cup semi-final at Eden Gardens was abandoned after Indian fans rioted, hurling bottles and setting fires when India's batting collapsed against Sri Lanka's spinners.
International cricket
26 December 1995
Darrell Bruce Hair — DB Hair on scorecards — was the Australian umpire born 30 September 1952 in Mudgee NSW who stood in 78 Tests (1992–2008). His full name: Darrell Bruce Hair. Best known for no-balling Muralitharan in 1995 and the forfeited 2006 Oval Test.
West Indies vs Australia
1995-05-03
On May 3, 1995, Australia beat the West Indies by an innings and 53 runs at Sabina Park to take the four-Test series 2-1 — and end West Indian dominance of Test cricket after 15 years and 29 unbeaten series. Steve Waugh's 200 and a 231 stand with twin Mark anchored the win.
Australia vs Sri Lanka
26 December 1995
Umpire Darrell Hair no-balled Muttiah Muralitharan seven times for a suspect bowling action during the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, sparking a massive controversy.
West Indies vs Australia
28 April 1995
Curtly Ambrose got in Steve Waugh's face after being told to go back to his mark. Richie Richardson had to pull Ambrose away. Ambrose then bowled a devastating spell.
Australia vs Sri Lanka
26 December 1995
Umpire Darrell Hair called Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing seven times during the Boxing Day Test, igniting one of cricket's longest-running controversies.
Australia vs Various
9 December 1998
Australian stars Shane Warne and Mark Waugh admitted to accepting money from an Indian bookmaker known as 'John' in exchange for pitch and weather information during the 1994 tour to Sri Lanka.
Australia vs Sri Lanka
26 December 1995
Australian umpire Darrell Hair no-balled Muttiah Muralitharan seven times for throwing during the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, igniting one of cricket's longest-running controversies.
West Indies vs England
1994-04-18
On April 18, 1994, Brian Lara hooked Chris Lewis to the leg-side boundary to move from 365 to 375, breaking Sir Garfield Sobers' Test batting record that had stood since 1958. The 24-year-old left-hander batted nearly 13 hours and faced 538 deliveries before edging Andy Caddick to wicketkeeper Jack Russell.
Warwickshire vs Durham
1994-06-06
Just seven weeks after his Test world-record 375, Brian Lara scored an unbeaten 501 for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston, breaking Hanif Mohammad's 499 from 1959 to register the highest individual score in first-class history. The innings came off only 427 balls and contained 62 fours and 10 sixes.
India vs Australia
1994-09-09
After 78 ODI innings without a hundred, Sachin Tendulkar finally got his first one-day century — 110 off 130 balls against Australia at the R Premadasa Stadium during the 1994 Singer World Series. Wisden later called it 'an innings that changed ODI cricket forever.'
England vs South Africa
1994-08-20
On August 20, 1994, after being struck on the helmet by a Fanie de Villiers bouncer, England's Devon Malcolm walked back to his bowling mark, said 'You guys are history' to the South African slip cordon, and proceeded to take 9 for 57 — the sixth-best bowling figures in Test history at the time.
India vs Sri Lanka
1994-02-08
On February 8, 1994 at Motera, Kapil Dev had Hashan Tillakaratne caught at slip by Sanjay Manjrekar to claim his 432nd Test wicket and pass Sir Richard Hadlee for the all-time Test wicket-taking record. He was 35; he had been chasing the record for two seasons.
Pakistan vs Australia
1994-10-11
On the eve of the Karachi Test in October 1994, Pakistan captain Salim Malik allegedly approached Shane Warne, Mark Waugh and Tim May with bribes of around US$200,000 each to underperform. Australia lost the Test by one wicket. Malik denied everything for years; Justice Qayyum's 2000 report found him guilty and banned him for life.
Pakistan vs South Africa
1994-10-13
In October 1994, at age 25, Hansie Cronje took over as full-time South African Test captain after Kepler Wessels stepped down. He was the youngest South African captain in 96 years. Over the next six years he would lead South Africa to 27 Test wins, 99 ODI victories — and eventually the match-fixing scandal that destroyed his career.
England vs South Africa
23 July 1994
England captain Mike Atherton was caught on camera applying dirt from his pocket to the ball during the Lord's Test against South Africa, leading to a fine and a crisis of confidence.
England vs Australia
1993-06-04
Shane Warne's first ball in Ashes cricket — 4 June 1993, Old Trafford — turned from outside leg stump and clipped the top of Gatting's off stump. The delivery became universally known as the Ball of the Century. Gatting's expression said everything.
Australia vs West Indies
1993-01-30
On January 30, 1993, Curtly Ambrose produced one of the great fast-bowling spells of the modern era — 7 for 1 in 32 balls — to demolish Australia from 85 for 2 to 119 all out in the Perth Test. He finished with 7 for 25; West Indies won by an innings and 25 runs to seal the Frank Worrell Trophy 2-1.
Australia vs West Indies
1993-01-05
On January 5, 1993, a 23-year-old Brian Lara made his maiden Test hundred at the SCG — and turned it into 277 off 372 balls before being run out. The innings, his fifth Test, announced the arrival of the most exciting batter of the 1990s.
Australia vs New Zealand
1993-11-12
Glenn McGrath made his Test debut for Australia at Perth on November 12, 1993, replacing the injured Merv Hughes. He took 3 for 142 in the match — modest figures, but the start of a 124-Test, 563-wicket career that would form the spine of Australian cricket for the next 14 years.
Australia vs West Indies
1993-01-26
On January 26, 1993, West Indies beat Australia by one run at Adelaide — the narrowest victory by runs in Test history. Australia, chasing 186, were 102 for 8 when Tim May (42 not out) and Craig McDermott (18) added 40 for the ninth wicket and then 42 for the tenth before McDermott was given out caught behind off a Courtney Walsh bouncer with two runs needed.
England vs Australia
4 June 1993
While not a controversial decision itself, Mike Gatting's utter disbelief at being bowled by Shane Warne's first ball in Ashes cricket highlighted how umpires and batsmen alike were unprepared for extreme spin.
West Indies vs England
18 November 1993
Curtly Ambrose refused to remove his white wristbands when asked by the umpire, leading to a standoff that required captain Richie Richardson's intervention.
Australia vs Various
1993-01-01
Merv Hughes, the moustachioed Australian fast bowler, was famous for his creative and hilarious sledging that often left batsmen and teammates in stitches.
Australia vs India
1992-02-03
On the fastest pitch in the world, an 18-year-old Sachin Tendulkar made 114 off 161 balls against Craig McDermott, Merv Hughes and Mike Whitney while teammates wilted. India lost the Test by 300 runs but Tendulkar's innings became a generational reference point — he himself rates it among his very best.
England vs Pakistan
1992-08-22
During Pakistan's 1992 tour of England, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis took 41 wickets between them with reverse-swing bowling that English batters and tabloid press could not understand. Pakistan won the series 2-1; English newspapers accused them of ball-tampering and the row poisoned England-Pakistan relations for a decade.
Pakistan vs England
1992-03-25
On March 25, 1992, Pakistan beat England by 22 runs at the MCG to lift their first cricket World Cup. Imran Khan's 72 and Wasim Akram's match-defining all-round performance (33 with the bat, 3/49 with the ball, including the wickets of Lamb and Lewis with consecutive deliveries) sealed it. Imran retired immediately afterwards.
New Zealand vs Pakistan
1992-03-21
On March 21, 1992 in Auckland, a 22-year-old Inzamam-ul-Haq came in at 140 for 4 chasing 263 against tournament leaders New Zealand and smashed 60 off 37 balls to power Pakistan to a four-wicket win and into the final. Inzamam had nearly been left out of the playing XI.
South Africa vs Pakistan
1992-03-08
On March 8, 1992, Jonty Rhodes — gathering the ball at backward point — sprinted four metres and dived horizontally into the stumps with the ball still in his hand to run out Inzamam-ul-Haq for 48. The image redefined cricket fielding for a generation.
South Africa vs India
1992-11-14
On November 14, 1992 at Kingsmead, Sachin Tendulkar became the first batter in cricket history to be given out by a third umpire. Cyril Mitchley referred a tight run-out call upstairs to Karl Liebenberg, who confirmed Tendulkar was out for 11. The technology era of decision-making had begun.
New Zealand
1992-02-25
Replacing the injured John Wright at the 1992 World Cup, Mark Greatbatch was instructed by captain Martin Crowe to attack the new ball and use the fielding restrictions. The strategy worked: Greatbatch made 313 at a strike rate of 88, hit a tournament-leading 14 sixes, and created the template for the 'pinch hitter' role.
Pakistan vs England
1992-03-25
Immediately after lifting the World Cup at the MCG on March 25, 1992, Imran Khan announced his retirement from international cricket. At 39, the cornered tigers' captain walked away on the highest possible note: world champion, in his last match, with a personal score of 72.
West Indies vs South Africa
1992-04-18
On April 18-23, 1992, South Africa played their first Test match in 22 years — against the West Indies in Bridgetown. They lost by 52 runs after collapsing from 122/2 to 148 all out chasing 201. Curtly Ambrose took 6/34 in the second innings; Barbadian fans largely boycotted the game in protest at Anderson Cummins' omission.
Pakistan
1992-03-25
Pakistan won just one of their first five matches at the 1992 World Cup and were one rained-out point from elimination. Captain Imran Khan, wearing a t-shirt with a tiger printed on it, told his players to 'fight like cornered tigers' — and the team won every match thereafter, lifting the trophy on March 25 at the MCG.
England vs South Africa
22 March 1992
A farcical rain rule calculation left South Africa needing 22 runs off 1 ball in the World Cup semi-final, robbing them of a realistic chance of reaching the final.
Pakistan vs India
1992-03-04
Javed Miandad mocked Indian wicketkeeper Kiran More's jumping celebrations by doing exaggerated frog-like jumps at the crease, creating one of cricket's most iconic comedy moments.
India vs South Africa
1991-11-10
On November 10, 1991, South Africa returned to international cricket after 22 years of apartheid-era isolation, playing India in front of more than 90,000 spectators at Eden Gardens, Calcutta. The Proteas lost by three wickets — but cricket's lost nation was back.
Australia vs Various
28 December 1991
Merv Hughes was legendary for his creative and often hilarious sledging, engaging in memorable verbal battles with Javed Miandad, Viv Richards, and many others.
England vs India
1990-08-14
On August 14, 1990, a 17-year-old Sachin Tendulkar scored an unbeaten 119 to save the Old Trafford Test for India. It was his first international century — the start of a tally that would grow to 100 across formats. He shared an unbroken 160-run seventh-wicket stand with Manoj Prabhakar.