Venue: India and Pakistan
Teams: 8, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, New Zealand, Australia, Zimbabwe, England, West Indies.
Format: The eight teams were divided into two groups of four each. Each group saw the teams play two legs of round-robin games after which the top two sides from each group qualified for the semi-finals. The four semi-finalists played in the semi-finals, followed by the final.
Controversies and Innovations: This was the first ever tournament to be played outside England after the first three were played there. It required a huge concerted effort on the part of both, the Indian and Pakistani boards to get the cup to the sub-continent. This was also the first ever World Cup that was played over 50 overs instead of 60 as was the case in England because of the shorter length of days.
Upsets: West Indies had entered the finals of the all the first three World Cup tournaments and won two of them. However, an ageing side lost to England and Pakistan and were bundled out of the tournament. Australia were called a club side by one of the former Pakistani experts and went on to stun India in the first ever game of the tournament, in turn going on to enter the semi-finals and then the final. Both, India and Pakistan were joint favourites given that they were playing at home but were knocked out in the semi-finals.
*Most Runs’: Graham Gooch (471)Most Wickets: Craig McDermott (18)Winner: Australia*Runner-up’: England