Where there's cricket, there's controversy and at the 2003 World Cup the phrase "It's not cricket" vied for attention with on-field contests.

The tournament, jointly hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, was not only the biggest in the history but also had more than its fair share of controversies, beginning with a drug-ban involving Australian Shane Warne.

Australia got the news before their opening match against Pakistan that the star spinner had been ruled out after testing positive, but it was a tribute to their tenacity that they did not allow it to affect their performance.

The ace leg-spinner was handed a 12-month ban and never played one-day cricket again for Australia.

The tournament had just got off the blocks when cricket was again pushed into the background as Zimbabweans Henry Olonga and Andy Flower wore black armbands to protest the "death of democracy"

in their country.

Both were later driven into cricketing exile, but the Zimbabwe shadow was to fall on the event again when England boycotted their match at Harare on political grounds.

That the tournament was more than just a simple contest between bat and ball was proved again when New Zealand refused to play in Nairobi due to security concerns.

The forfeited games helped both Zimbabwe and Kenya to advance to the next round.

Controversies had been shadowing the World Cup ever since South Africa were asked to score an absurd 21 off just one ball in the 1992 rain-hit semifinal against England at Sydney, but the 2003 event took the cake.

Cricket became a vehicle to express various points of views in the age of global television and Australia and the West Indies were doing the same when they boycotted their opening games in Sri Lanka in 1996 due to security fears.

So unsatisfactory was the tournament format then that the forfeitures did not affect the qualifying chances of both the teams, with the West Indies going on to make the semifinals and Australia the final.

The 1996 edition also had a dubious first to its credit -- an abandoned match due to riots in the stadium.

India were facing defeat at 120-8 chasing 252 in the semifinal against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta when the riots broke out, forcing match-referee Clive Lloyd to award to game to Sri Lanka.

The spectators, annoyed with the hosts' dismal batting performance, threw missiles on to the field and lit fires in the stands, damaging in the process India's reputation as a sporting nation.

"It was a sad day for cricket and for the people of Calcutta. The

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safety of the players is paramount and I had no choice but to call it off," said Lloyd.

Many of the Indian cricketers were in tears after the match, but Sri Lanka were the deserving winners as their spinners tied the hosts in knots on an unreliable pitch.

Sri Lanka, who had already won two matches by forfeit, eventually lifted the Cup with an emphatic victory over Australia in the final at Lahore.

The first major row cropped up in 1992, just when the World Cup was stepping into the modern era of coloured clothing, white balls, black sightscreens and floodlit matches.

It was initiated by a rain-rule and its victims were South Africa, making their maiden Cup appearance.

South Africa needed 22 to win off 13 balls when their semifinal against England was interrupted by rain. When the game resumed, they found to their horror that the target had been revised to 21 off one ball.

The controversial rain-rule was later replaced with the Duckworth-Lewis system, but South Africa continued to be haunted by the weather.

It was a mathematical error that led to their early exit in 2003 at home. They had only tied the scores off the penultimate ball against Sri Lanka in a rain-hit tie. They thought they had completed the job.

"They cocked it up ... you can't be a total mathematical dunce," said Briton Frank Duckworth, who devised the system with fellow-statistician Tony Lewis.