A knockout in Nairobi
The second edition kept the format of the first and moved it to a country with no Test status at all. Kenya had beaten West Indies at the 1996 World Cup and the ICC wanted the revenue and the exposure to land somewhere that needed both. All eleven matches-worth of cricket, ten in the end, were played at the Gymkhana Club Ground in Nairobi, a modest ground with temporary seating that had never staged anything on this scale.
Eleven teams entered, one more than the field of Test nations, because Bangladesh and Kenya were both included. Five sides were seeded straight into the last eight on their 1999 World Cup finishing positions. The other six played three pre-quarter-finals over the first three days. India beat Kenya, Sri Lanka beat West Indies and England beat Bangladesh, so the seeding held and the draw proceeded as expected.
Ganguly's fortnight
India had a new captain. Sourav Ganguly had taken over that summer with the side still recovering from the match-fixing revelations, and he spent the tournament batting as well as he ever did. He made 141 not out from 142 balls against South Africa in the semi-final, an innings that effectively settled the match by the twenty-fifth over of the reply, and 117 in the final. His 348 runs were the most by anyone. He also introduced two debutants who would matter for a decade: Zaheer Khan, who took three wickets in his first match, and Yuvraj Singh, who made 84 from 80 balls against Australia in the quarter-final and was named man of the match at nineteen.
Australia went out in that quarter-final, beaten by 20 runs, having lost at the same stage in 1998. New Zealand, meanwhile, were an unfancied side who kept finding a way. Roger Twose made 85 against Zimbabwe and 87 against Pakistan. Shayne O'Connor took 5 for 46 in the semi-final as Pakistan, having reached 252 on the back of Saeed Anwar's second hundred of the week, were run down with an over to spare.
The final
India batted first and scored 264 for 6, Ganguly's hundred underpinning an opening stand of 141 with Sachin Tendulkar. New Zealand were 132 for 5 in reply and the chase looked finished. Chris Cairns, batting with a knee that had troubled him all tournament, put on 122 with Chris Harris and was still there on 102 when the winning runs came with two balls left. It was New Zealand's first senior ICC trophy, and it remained their only one until the World Test Championship in 2021.
The tournament also served its stated purpose. Kenyan cricket got a full house for its own match and a share of the receipts, though the promised long-term growth did not follow. By the next edition the ICC had abandoned the knockout format for pools.