West Indies' triumph prevented Pakistan claiming their seventh successive trophy in Sharjah since 1989. They entered the final on equal terms, having beaten Sri Lanka twice apiece and each other once. But a series of injuries left Pakistan weakened, and even a spectacular century from Basit Ail could not set up a total big enough to daunt the West Indians, for whom Lara struck magnificent form.

In what proved to be a batsman's tournament, the qualifying rounds were dominated by a remarkable run of innings from Saeed Anwar, a limited-overs specialist still with only one Test to his name. In the previous final at Sharjah, nine months earlier, he had scored 110; now he piled on 107, 131 and 111 in successive matches, a triple feat previously achieved in one-day internationals only by Zaheer Abbas, also for Pakistan, against India in 1982–83. Even so, it was the consistency of Phil Simmons, who averaged 82.50 in his five matches for West Indies, which earned the award for the player of the series. With the Indians still absenting themselves because of grievances concerning their last appearance at Sharjah, Sri Lanka made up the numbers. They showed only once, in their second match against Pakistan, how they could have stretched their opponents had more than one batsman fired in each innings.

The Cricketers' Benefit Fund presented $US35,000 each to Desmond Haynes of West Indies and Pakistanis Mohammad Nazir and Shoaib Mohammad. West Indies won $US37,500, Pakistan $US22,500 and Sri Lanka $US10,000.

Note: Matches in this section were not first-class.

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