Scotland's Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Alan McManus won the competition, defeating the Republic of Ireland's (ROI) Ken Doherty, Fergal O'Brien and Michael Judge six frames to two (6–2) in the final.

During the match, referee Alan Chamberlain courted controversy when he cautioned O'Brien over slow play since the television coverage was due to end soon after.

The event's highest break was a 131 made by Thai player Phaitoon Phonbun in the second frame of his nation's group match with Malta.

[2] Although there were plans to rename the tournament the World Cup, this was the final year it was played because ITV stopped broadcasting snooker.

[1] Sponsored by smokeless coal manufacturer Coalite,[3] the event had a total prize pool of £69,400, with £46,950 going to the winning squad divided equally amongst all three players.

Should there have been a tie for second place, the nation with the higher frame difference progressed or each player would have two tries to pot the blue ball on its spot from the D in a shoot-out.

In the event the game was tied at 5–5, the team captains would be required to nominate the player for the final frame decider.

[4] Malta qualified for the Nations Cup by defeating Belgium 3–2 in a play-off round in the Bournemouth International Centre, on 18 November 2000.

[5] In the first match, England versus China, Ronnie O'Sullivan won the first frame against Asian qualifier Da Hai Lin and John Parrott the second on a clearance after Marco Fu snookered himself on the last red ball.

[10] Gerard Greene took a final frame decider for Northern Ireland over the ROI's Michael Judge to win 4–3.

[11] O'Sullivan was ruled out for three days with a lower back injury he picked up during a massage at the 2000 China Open and was replaced by Anthony Hamilton.

[14][15] Greene, Murphy and Swail helped Northern Ireland defeat England's Lee, Hamilton and Parrott 4–2 to qualify for the semi-finals and eliminate the top seeded team.

[16] The final frame was won by Murphy for Northern Ireland after Parrott incurred 67 penalty points in fouls.

Tony Drago made a 47 break to defeat John Higgins before Alan McManus and Stephen Hendry beat Alex Borg and Joe Grech to go 2–1 ahead.

[19] Scotland's Hendry, Higgins and McManus whitewashed the Thai trio of Noppadon, Phonbun and Wattana 4–0 to progress to the semi-finals and Wales' Dale, Stevens and Williams maintained their unbeaten tournament record by 4–0 over Malta's Borg, Drago and Grech for the last spot in the next round.

[22][23] Losing player Dale said he could not believe the outcome, adding: "In nearly every frame, luck played a part and we didn't have any.

Swail led Higgins 39–0 in frame five before the latter won to finish Scotland's 5–0 whitewash of Northern Ireland and enter the final.

[25][26] Hendry described Scotland's performance as their best since their 1996 World Cup victory in Bangkok, adding: "our opponents can consider themselves unlucky to catch us on such a hot day.

McManus fluked the final red ball from a snooker into the left-centre pocket to defeat Doherty in frame five.

[27] In frame six,[28] O'Brien was ahead of Higgins when referee Alan Chamberlain cautioned him about playing slowly after taking more than a minute to select a shot.

[28][32] Hendry said he thought the incident with O'Brien "unfortunate, to say the least, and unfair",[28] adding: "He isn't a slow player, he flows as much as anyone when he's among the balls.

"[27] Steve Davis, the six-time world champion, defended Chamberlain's choice, believing there was a straightforward shot based on position of the balls and that O'Brien spent too long examining the situation.