Cricket was included in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia. This was the only time cricket was played at a Commonwealth Games until a women's tournament was included in the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Matches were played over 50 overs, and had List A status rather than full One Day Internationals. As is normal at the multisports events, the Caribbean islands that entered participated as separate nations, not as the combined West Indies team. Indeed, the Games were the first occasion on which an Antigua and Barbuda side competed at a senior level. Northern Ireland also entered, this occurrence being noteworthy because Irish cricket is usually represented by an all-island Irish cricket team.

Sixteen teams entered the competition, including seven of the nine then Test-playing nations: West Indies did not enter as mentioned above, while England declined to send a team at all, on the grounds that the September date chosen clashed with other fixtures such as the end of the County Championship.

The strength of the teams that were entered varied somewhat. Strong squads including seasoned Test and ODI players were fielded by the three nations that eventually won medals: Bronze medalists New Zealand with Stephen Fleming and Daniel Vettori, silver medalists Australia with Steve and Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Damien Fleming and Darren Lehmann and gold medalists South Africa with Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini, Mark Boucher, and Herschelle Gibbs. India and Pakistan sent weakened teams as a result of a clash with the 1998 'Friendship' Cup, although India still named Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and VVS Laxman in its Commonwealth team while Pakistan included Shoaib Akhtar and Arshad Khan. Other notable cricketers who took part in the Commonwealth tournament included Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene, Zimbabwe's Andy Flower and the West Indies' Curtly Ambrose and Richie Richardson, playing for their home country of Antigua and Barbuda under the Commonwealth format.

Schedule The competition schedule for the cricket tournament was as follows:

+ LegendGGroup stage½Semi-finalsBBronze medal matchFGold medal match

+ Schedule Wed 9 Thu 10 Fri 11 Sat 12 Sun 13 Mon 14 Tues 15 Wed 16 Thu 17 Fri 18 Sat 19MenG G G G G G B F

Two days of matches were played before the opening ceremony on Friday 11 September. All matches began at 10:00 am with the lunch interval scheduled between 1:30 and 2:15 pm and the afternoon session running until 5:45 pm, with the exception of the bronze medal match which began 30 minutes earlier. Sunday 20 September was designated as a reserve day.

Qualification The first slot of the 16 team tournament was made up the hosts Malaysia. The 9 full members of International Cricket Council at the time were invited to participate with all accepting save for England who declined due the Games clashing with the final two rounds of the 1998 County Championship. The West Indies were represented by the Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Jamaica. Trinidad and Tobago declined the invitation to participate, whilst Guyana, finalists at the 1997–98 Red Stripe Bowl, was a late withdrawal due to financial reasons.

The final five slots were determined by the final placings in the 1997 ICC Trophy also played in Malaysia 18 months prior. The first three teams were Bangladesh, who would go on to achieve ICC full member status in 2000, Kenya and Scotland. All three teams also achieved a berth in the 1999 Cricket World Cup. The Irish cricket team finish fourth, but with the team representing all of Ireland, Northern Ireland was given the slot. Denmark and the Netherlands, two non-Commonwealth nations finished fifth and sixth so the final place with was achieved by Canada who finished seventh.

Means of qualification Date Venue Berths Qualified+ Qualification Host nation 1 Full members of International Cricket Council 1998 7 West Indies Region 3 1997 ICC Trophy Malaysia 5 Total 16

Venues A total of six venues were used for the tournament, with all matches being played on turf wickets. Only the 13 matches that were played the Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor Sports Complex and Tenaga National Sports Complex were broadcast.

+ Venues PKNS Sports Complex Rubber Research Institute Ground Tenaga National Sports Complex Petaling Jaya Shah Alam Kuala Lumpur Capacity: 7,000 Capacity: 6,000 Capacity: 5,000 Kelab Aman Victoria Institution Royal Selangor Club Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur Capacity: 3,000 Capacity: 1,000 Capacity: 1,000

Squads The following squads were named ahead of the tournament:

+Squads Dave Joseph (c) Curtly Ambrose Hamish Anthony Eldine Baptiste Kenny Benjamin Winston Benjamin Wilden Cornwall Ridley Jacobs (wk) Sylvester Joseph Anthony Lake Richie Richardson Ian Tittle Earl Waldron Hayden Walsh Steve Waugh (c) Mark Waugh (vc) Michael Bevan Andy Bichel Damien Fleming Adam Gilchrist (wk) Brendon Julian Michael Kasprowicz Darren Lehmann Damien Martyn Glenn McGrath Tom Moody Ricky Ponting Gavin Robertson Brad Young Akram Khan (c) Faruque Ahmed Hasibul Hossain Shahriar Hossain Aminul Islam Azam Iqbal Morshed Ali Khan Khaled Mahmud Khaled Mashud (wk) Mohammad Rafique Mushfiqur Rahman Naimur Rahman Shafiuddin Ahmed Philo Wallace (c) Henderson Bryan Sherwin Campbell Pedro Collins Vasbert Drakes Ottis Gibson Adrian Griffith Ryan Hinds Roland Holder Ricky Hoyte (wk) Mark Lavine Winston Reid Floyd Reifer Horace Walrond Ingleton Liburd (c) George Codrington Muneeb Diwan Derick Etwaroo Joseph Harris Nigel Isaacs Davis Joseph Paul Prashad Brian Rajadurai Danny Ramnarais (wk) Barry Seebaran Sanjayan Thuraisingam Anand Varadarajan Ajay Jadeja (c) Anil Kumble (vc) Nikhil Chopra Rohan Gavaskar Harbhajan Singh Gagan Khoda Amay Khurasiya VVS Laxman Paras Mhambrey Debashish Mohanty M. S. K. Prasad (wk) Rahul Sanghvi Robin Singh Sachin Tendulkar Jimmy Adams (c) Gareth Breese Andre Coley (wk) Ryan Cunningham Leon Garrick Wavell Hinds Nehemiah Perry Kirk Powell Tony Powell O'Neil Richards Robert Samuels Audley Sanson Laurie Williams Carl Wright Aasif Karim (c) Sandip Gupta Edward Mboya Hitesh Modi Thomas Odoyo Maurice Odumbe Kennedy Otieno (wk) Ravindu Shah Tony Suji Martin Suji Steve Tikolo Alpesh Vadher Ramesh Menon (c) Chew Pok Cheong Siswanto Haidi Rakesh Madhavan Marimuthu Muniandy Jeevandran Nair Suresh Navaratnam Venu Ramadass Shankar Retinam (wk) Rohan Selvaratnam Rohan Suppiah David Thalalla Santhara Vello Matthew William Stephen Fleming (c) Geoff Allott Nathan Astle Mark Bailey Matthew Bell Chris Drum Chris Harris Matt Horne Craig McMillan Dion Nash Shayne O'Connor Adam Parore (wk) Daniel Vettori Paul Wiseman Alan Rutherford (c & wk) Neil Anderson Neil Carson Gordon Cooke Dekker Curry Ryan Eagleson Peter Gillespie Derek Heasley Kyle McCallan Paul McCrum Gary Neely Andrew Patterson Mark Patterson Stephen Smyth Arshad Khan (c) Kashif Ahmed Basit Ali Asif Mahmood Shoaib Akhtar Saleem Elahi Suleman Huda Mohammad Hussain Mohammad Javed Taimur Khan Shahid Nazir Javed Qadeer (wk) Akhtar Sarfraz Azhar Shafiq Wajahatullah Wasti George Salmond (c) Mike Allingham John Blain James Brinkley Stephen Crawley Alec Davies (wk) Nick Dyer Douglas Lockhart Drew Parsons Bruce Patterson Keith Sheridan Ian Stanger Greig Williamson Craig Wright Shaun Pollock (c) Paul Adams Adam Bacher Dale Benkenstein Nicky Boje Mark Boucher (wk) Derek Crookes Alan Dawson Steve Elworthy Herschelle Gibbs Andrew Hudson Jacques Kallis Lance Klusener Makhaya Ntini Michael Rindel Henry Williams Hashan Tillakaratne (c) Mahela Jayawardene (vc) Russel Arnold Upul Chandana Indika de Saram Lanka de Silva (wk) Indika Gallage Avishka Gunawardene Chandika Hathurusingha Pradeep Hewage Suresh Perera Thilan Samaraweera Mario Villavarayan Malinda Warnapura Alistair Campbell (c) Eddo Brandes Gary Brent Craig Evans Andy Flower (wk) Grant Flower Murray Goodwin Adam Huckle Pommie Mbangwa Mluleki Nkala Paul Strang Heath Streak Andy Whittall Craig Wishart

Prior to the Games, Glenn McGrath was ruled out of Australia's squad due to injury with Andy Bichel named as his replacement. Basit Ali withdrew from the Pakistani squad after his brother suffered a heart attack. Wajahatullah Wasti was named as his replacement. Lance Klusener withdrew from the South African squad after sustaining an ankle injury during the third Test of South Africa's tour of England in July. Adam Bacher was also unavailable for the Games, suffering an injury to his shoulder. They were replaced by Alan Dawson and Andrew Hudson, respectively.

Players who were unavailable for selection include New Zealand paceman Simon Doull due to a groin strain, Australian leg spinner Shane Warne due to a shoulder injury and New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns due to knee surgery.

Officials A total of 16 umpires and 6 match referees were selected for the tournament.

+ Officials UmpiresMatch Referees Javed Akhtar (Pakistan) Rudi Koertzen (South Africa) Ebrahim Braima Isaccs (South Africa) Beattie Arlow (Ireland) Syed Mahabubullah (Bangladesh) John Reid (New Zealand) Saleem Badar (Pakistan) Subhash Modi (Kenya) Hanumant Singh (India) Nizam Baksh (Canada) Eddie Nicholls (West Indies) Cammie Smith (West Indies) Steve Bucknor (West Indies) Dave Orchard (South Africa) Peter van der Merwe (South Africa) K.T. Francis (Sri Lanka) V. K. Ramaswamy (India) Sidath Wettimuny (Sri Lanka) Darrell Hair (Australia) William Smith (Scotland) Ismail Khan (Malaysia) Russell Tiffin (Zimbabwe)

Draw The 16 teams were divided into four groups of four on a seeded basis in May 1998. Initially, the draw was as follows:

+ Group A Team + Group B Team + Group C Team + Group D Team

The subsequent final draw saw Antigua and Barbuda replace Guyana in Group B and Barbados and Zimbabwe switching pools.

+ Group A Team + Group B Team + Group C Team + Group D Team

Warm-up matches Several warm-up matches were played prior to the tournament commencing. The Pakistan Cricket Board arranged for two matches to played at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore between the squad that was to compete at the Games against the squad that would contest the 1998 'Friendship' Cup with the both squads winning one match each. South Africa played the provincial team of KwaZulu-Natal at City Oval in Pietermaritzburg securing a narrow victory. New Zealand played four warm-up matches, three against New South Wales and one against Australia, losing all four. The matches were played at John Blanck Oval in Buderim, Queensland. Australia were defeated by an Australian Cricket Academy XI at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane before travelling up to Buderim where they also played New South Wales and the match against New Zealand, winning both. Finally, the only warm-up match that was played in Malaysia was contested between the hosts and Bangladesh where rain prevented a result from being achieved.

Group stages The competing teams were divided into four groups of four teams, denoted as groups A, B, C and D. Teams in each group played one another in a round-robin basis, with only the top team of each group advancing to the knock out semi finals and play-offs for the gold and bronze medals.

All times are local, MST (UTC+8).

Tiebreakers The ranking of teams in the group stage was determined as follows:

Points obtained in all group matches (two points for a win, one for a no result, none for a defeat) Net run rate.

Group A