The tournament saw the introduction of third umpire in front of the TV monitor that gives the final decision if the field umpire is confused on taking a decision of whether the player is out or not out. The third umpire gives the decision by repeatedly monitoring the TV display.
Several players bid adieu to their profession after this tournament. Javed Miandad of Pakistan, Robin Smith of England, West Indies players Richie Richardson and Roger Harper, Asanka Gurusinha of Sri Lanka, Ramiz Raja of Pakistan, Manoj Prabhakar of India, England player Phil DeFreitas, Dipak Patel of New Zealand, Andy Waller of Zimbabwe and Australian player Craig McDermott. Pakistan bowler Waqar Younis made his first World Cup appearance in this tournament.
Out of the 12 teams that participated, 3 teams like the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands and Kenya made their debut performances in the tournament. The matches held in different venues of the three countries such as Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Ahmedabad, Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad, The Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in Pakistan, Green Park (Modi Stadium) at Kanpur, R. Premadasa (Khettarama) Stadium in Colombo, Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo, Moti Bagh Stadium at Vadodara,Barabati Stadium at Cuttack, Arbab Niaz (Shahi Bagh) Stadium at Peshawar in Pakistan, Iqbal Stadium at Faisalabad, Roop Singh Stadium at Gwalior, The Indira Priyadarshini Stadium at Vishakhapatnam, Jinah (Municipal) Stadium at Gujranwala, Moin-ul-Haq Stadium at Patna, Nehru Stadium in Pune, Vidarbha C.A.Ground at Nagpur, Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium at Delhi, Jaipur Sawai Mansingh Stadium at Jaipur, Asgiriya Stadium at Kandy in Sri Lanka, Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bangalore, MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Punjab CA Stadium in Mohali and Gadaffi (Lahore) Stadium in Pakistan.
Indian bowler Anil Kumble took 15 wickets in the tournament and set the record for the top wicket-taker. Sachin Tendulkar scored 523 runs top break the record of top run scorer. These are some of the various records in the Cricket world Cup 1996.
The final match between Australia and host Sri Lanka saw the outstanding performance of Sri Lankan player de Silva. He took two catches and three wickets and took a stunning 107 runs not out. This exceptional contribution made Sri Lanka crush Australia and win the tournament by 7 wickets.
