Cricket World Cup

Origin

The Cricket World Cup > is the premier international championship of One Day International (ODI) men’s cricket. This event is actually organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC), which is the sport’s governing body. The preliminary qualification rounds lead up to the finals tournament held every four years. The first tournament was held in 1975 in England. A separate Women’s Cricket World Cup is held every four years too and its first match was held in 1973. The total number of teams includes 19 with the most successful team Australia winning almost four titles. The West Indies team won twice while Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan having won once respectively. At this tournament, the most number of runs were secured by Sachin Tendulkar with 1,796 runs and Glenn McGrath taking the most wickets, 71 of them.

The format of the Tournament

The finals of the Cricket World Cup are competed by all the ten Test playing and ODI playing nations, along with other nations that qualify through the World Cup Qualifier. The rules, restrictions, dressing codes have been changed till date.

The inaugural of this cup was hosted in the year 1975 by England which is the only nation to put forward the resources to stage an event like this. During that time, the first three events were held in England only and were officially known as the Prudential Cup. These matches comprised of 60 six ball over each team, was played during the daytime with the players wearing cricket whites and using red balls. During this time, eight teams had participated like Australia, West Indies, England, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, East Africa and Sri Lanka. The tournament was won by the West Indies team, defeating Australia by 17 runs in the final at Lord’s.

By 1979, ICC Trophy was introduced to select non test playing teams for the World Cup. This year too, West Indies won the tournament defeating the hosts, England by 92 runs in the final match. In 1983, the host was once again England, and by this time there were many changes to the tournament rules. India won this tournament defeating West Indies by 43 runs in the final. The 1987 World Cup was held in India and Pakistan too, and this was the first time that such a competition with right to the Cricket World Cup was held outside England. Australia won this time by defeating England by 7 runs in the final. The 1992 World Cup was held in Australia and New Zealand, again with many changes in the rule. There were now colored clothing’s, day/night matches, white balls, and also an alteration to the fielding restrictions. Pakistan won this tournament defeating England by 22 runs. By 1996, the tournament was held in the Indian subcontinent for the second time, with Sri Lanka winning the title by defeating Australia by 7 wickets.