It wasn't just the teams who experimented, with umpires allowed to refer all decisions to the third official, but the idea was abandoned later.

More familiar was England's inability to get far in the competition, blistering centuries from Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag driving Nasser Hussain's men to distraction.

Bangladesh, Kenya and the Netherlands were hopelessly outclassed and the only significant fixtures in each pool were between the two stronger countries.

South Africa edged out West Indies by two wickets in one of the few genuine contests.