The ICC Cricket World Cup is a quadrennial cricket tournament held to determine the Cricket World Champions. The World Cup is set for the One-Day format of the game, with the T20 getting its own separate World Cup in 2007 and onwards, and a World Test Championship commencing in 2019 and spanning two years.
In the men's world cup, Australia currently is the most successful World Cup team with 6 men's wins and 2 losing efforts in the finals. The next most successful is India with 2 wins and 2 losses in the finals, after which the West Indies has 2 wins and 1 losing effort in a final. England is the next most successful with 1 win and 3 times as a losing finalist, followed by Sri Lanka with 1 win and 2 times as losing finalist. Pakistan has 1 win and one loss in a final, while New Zealand has been a losing finalist twice.
In the women's world cup, Australia is once again the most successful team with 7 wins and 2 runners-up, England has 4 wins and 4 runners-up, New Zealand has 1 win and 3 runners-up, while India has been runners-up twice and the West Indies once.
The current men's champion is Australia, having won the World Cup in 2023, while the current women's champion is Australia, having won in 2022.
Men's Cricket World Cups
Prudential World Cup - 1975
- Location: England
- Participants: England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Pakistan, East Africa (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania) and Sri Lanka.
- Winners: West Indies
- Ain't No Rule: The Australian bowler Dennis Lillee brought out an aluminum bat to see if it would aid him against The Dreaded West Indies pace attack. Although there wasn't a rule explicitly banning non-wooden bats, the umpires still wouldn't let him bat with it.
Prudential World Cup - 1979
- Location: England
- Participants: England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Pakistan, Canada and Sri Lanka.
- Winners: West Indies
Prudential World Cup - 1983
- Location: England
- Participants: England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
- Winners: India
- Defeating the Undefeatable: India won the Cup by defeating the mighty West Indies who had won the cup twice before and were favored to win a third time.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Kapil Dev’s epic match winning knock of 175 runs against Zimbabwe was never televised or even captured on film. This was because the telecasters saw it as an insignificant game no one would be interested in watching. Instead, this was a victory that gave the Indian team a huge boost of confidence that allowed it to win all their remaining games - including the World Cup final.
Reliance Cup - 1987
- Location: India and Pakistan
- Participants: England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
- Winners: Australia
- And You Thought It Would Fail: Initially, even the prospect of holding a World Cup in India of all places, appalled the administrators of the ICC. After all, it was India, a developing Third World nation, mired in poverty with a barely sputtering economy, with a crushing inept bureaucracy and laughably poor infrastructure. Or so they thought. What actually happened, was that the government, several state governments, several government run enterprises such as Doordarshan the TV channel, the railways, the airlines etc and several private corporations such as Reliance and several hotels,, came together and coordinated efforts in a huge way, often even eschewing short term profits or political capital - to put on the biggest sporting event the country had ever put on! And it was a roaring success, with high crowd attendance and high TV viewership, even for games without India or Pakistan playing.
- End of an Era: This was the last World Cup played the traditional way, with teams dressed in white, a cherry red leather ball, a white side screen behind the bowler and matches played only during the day.
Benson and Hedges World Cup - 1992
- Location: Australia and New Zealand
- Participants: England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
- Winners: Pakistan
- Cornered Rattlesnake: Pakistani Captain (and future Prime Minister!) Imran Khan implored his team to “fight like a cornered tiger” when they had to defeat Australia to stay alive in the tournament, then later in the semifinal against New Zealand and in the final too against England.
- Obvious Rule Patch: One of the semifinals - between England and South Africa - caused the procedure for determining a target if rain stopped play (which, ironically, had been changed for this tournament). The method used was working out the number of runs used in the most productive overs in the opponent's inningsnote . After a series of rain delays resulted in South Africa going from a difficult 22 runs in 13 balls, to an unlikely 22 from 7 and then an impossible 21 from 1 ball. This resulted in the creation of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, which takes into account both the runs scored by the team batting first and the number of remaining crickets and remaining overs the team batting second had left.
- Overshadowed by Controversy: Barely averted. The South African cricket team was allowed to participate on one condition - if the referendum to completely repeal Apartheid failed, the team would be ejected, no matter how far they had advanced. Thankfully, the referendum was held and overwhelmingly passed, the day before the first semifinal, thereby allowing South Africa to play in it against England. That semifinal would be shrouded in a completely different controversy (see above).
Wills World Cup - 1996
- Location: India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan
- Participants: England, Australia, Holland, UAE, Kenya, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
- Winners: Sri Lanka
- The Dreaded: The Sri Lankan batting lineup and its opening pair of Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana in particular developed such a fearsome reputation for destroying bowling attacks during the first 15 overs and thereby making a mockery out of any run chase, that teams abandoned a whole lot of conventional wisdom just to counter them. Pace bowlers Philip DeFraitas of England and Manoj Prabhakar of India switched to bowling off spin in the hope it would curtail Sri Lanka’s left handed batsmen - to no avail. The Indian team even ignored the phenomenon of dew formation late in the evening and its historical assistance to spinners on the Eden Gardens ground that made chasing under lights extremely challenging - opting instead to put Sri Lanka in and chase the score. Predictably, Sri Lanka played a more conventional innings centered around technical batsman Aravinda DaSilva while the Indian batting order collapsed to Sri Lanka’s spin attack.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: This was the first time ever that teams forfeited their matches (and took losses) in a World Cup. Australia and the West Indies refused to play in Sri Lanka against Sri Lanka, citing concerns of terrorist attacks by the LTTE. The Sri Lankans called BS; stating that they were just scared to face off spinner Muthaiah Muralitharan, without “sympathetic” umpires to no-ball him. The fact that the Sri Lankan civil war had already been raging for 13 years, both of these teams had visited multiple times in the years before, and India, with whom the rebel LTTE had a genuine beef with, had also visited multiple times, further rubbished their fear of “terrorist acts”.
- Powder Keg Crowd / Produce Pelting: The semifinal between India and Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, India had to be called off and the match awarded to Sri Lanka after the spectators, angry at a batting order collapse by India, started setting fire to the stands and pelting Sri Lankan outfielders with rubbish. This incident was called “Eden Gardens' Night of/for Shame” and the stadium would never host an important match again.
- Shoot the Television: After defending champions Pakistan lost the quarterfinal to arch enemy India, a Pakistani man was so upset over the prospect of his country’s team not being World Champions anymore, that he shot his TV, then shot himself.
Prudential World Cup - 1999
- Location: England
- Participants: England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Scotland, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
- Winners: Australia
- Down to the Last Play: The semifinal between Australia and South Africa came down to the last ball. The Proteas needed 3 runs to tie and 4 to win. The Aussies needed to take one more wicket to bowl out the opposition. South African batsman Lance Klussener struck the ball hard, but it was fielded and returned. After running three and attempting a fourth, the other batsman Allan Donald was run out. Because Australia had defeated South Africa in a league match before, they were allowed to go on to the final. And eventually win the cup.
Cricket World Cup - 2003
- Location: South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya
- Participants: England, Australia, New Zealand, Namibia, West Indies, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Canada, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
- Winners: Australia
- Overshadowed by Controversy: This was the tournament in which England forfeit their matches against Zimbabwe to protest against Robert Mugabe’s land grab policies (some Australian politicians also called for a boycott, but the rhetoric did not turn into a firm directive, so the match went ahead). More controversy erupted when Zimbabwean cricketers including a prominent African player of Zambian origin wore black armbands in protest of the same policies. A smaller controversy was New Zealand forfeiting their match against Kenya in Nairobi over terrorism fears. Also, Australian spin bowler Shane Warne failed a drug test shortly before the tournament, resulting in him not playing.
Cricket World Cup - 2007
- Location: The West Indies
- Participants: England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Bermuda, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
- Winners: Australia
- Overshadowed by Controversy: This tournament will forever live in infamy as the one in which the Pakistani team’s coach Bob Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room in Jamaica, with widespread speculation that he had been murdered. An inquest returned an "open verdict", meaning that it couldn't confirm or rule out foul play.
Cricket World Cup - 2011
- Location: India and Sri Lanka
- Participants: England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Ireland, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
- Winners: India
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Indian great Sachin Tendulkar, approaching the end of his career, had earned almost every possible accolade in cricket... except a World Cup winner's medal. Until now.
Cricket World Cup - 2015
- Location: Australia and New Zealand
- Participants: England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
- Winners: Australia
Cricket World Cup - 2019
- Location: England.
- Participants: England, Australia, Afghanistan, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Ireland, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Scotland, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
- Winners: England
- Down to the Last Play: With both teams tied on 241 runs each, New Zealand had to beat England's score of 15 in the Super Over. Scoring 14 with one ball left, Martin Guptill had to score at least two to win;note he was run out going for the second run.
- Obvious Rule Patch: As noted above, the Final was decided by the number of boundaries. After dissatisfaction with this result, the ICC would later announce that, in the event of ties in the future, further Super Overs would be bowled until a result was secured.
Cricket World Cup 2023
- Location: India
- Participants: India, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka.
- Winners: Australia
- Curb-Stomp Battle: India inflicted a big one on Sri Lanka. They first put up a mammoth total of 358 runs for the Sri Lankans to chase, and then proceeded to bowl the Sri Lankans out for a mere 56 runs - winning by 302 runs!
- Defeating the Undefeatable: India had come off an unbeaten streak and victory in the Asia Cup and had won all nine of its round robin league matches, after which they had defeated New Zealand in the semifinal. India was expected to easily dispatch the Australians and win their third World Cup while playing on a ground named after their current prime minister. Instead, the Australians would pull off an upset and defeat India for the second time in a World Cup final between them.
- Sore Loser: The Pakistani team became infamous for bellyaching about various “issues” that apparently caused them to lose. They blamed the pitch (not too different from pitches in Pakistan), the ball (claiming ball tampering), the hostile crowds (Of course Indian crowds don’t cheer on Pakistani teams and vice versa), lack of beef to eat (no other team including traditional red meat consumers England and Australia made any similar dietary demands), the absence of the song “Dil Dil Pakistan” being played to motivate the team (they apparently need a home game atmosphere to perform) and finally Islamophobia (the team was mocked for collectively kneeling and praying on the cricket field, something that none of the other Muslim teams did).
- That One Boss: New Zealand had for a long time, been India’s bogeyman - a team that had defeated them in all knockout Stage matches they had ever played in, including T20 and World Cup semifinals. This time around, India would overcome NZ to make it to the final.
Women's Cricket World Cups
Women's Cricket World Cup - 1973
- Location: England
- Participants: England, Australia, New Zealand, International XI, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Young Eingland
- Winners: England
Women's Cricket World Cup - 1978
- Location: India
- Participants: India, Australia, England, New Zealand
- Winners: Australia
Women's Cricket World Cup - 1982
- Location: New Zealand
- Participants: New Zealand, Australia, England, India, International XI
- Winners: Australia
Women's Cricket World Cup - 1988
- Location: Australia
- Participants: Australia, England, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand
- Winners: Australia
Women's Cricket World Cup - 1993
- Location: England
- Participants: England, Australia, Denmark, India, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, West Indies
- Winners: England
Women's Cricket World Cup - 1997
- Location: India
- Participants: India, Australia, Denmark, England, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies
- Winners: Australia
Women's Cricket World Cup - 2000
- Location: New Zealand
- Participants: New Zealand, Australia, England, India, Ireland, Netherlands, South Africa, Sri Lanka
- Winners: New Zealand
Women's Cricket World Cup - 2005
- Location: South Africa
- Participants: South Africa, Australia, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, West Indies
- Winners: Australia
Women's Cricket World Cup - 2009
- Location: Australia
- Participants: Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies
- Winners: England
Women's Cricket World Cup - 2013
- Location: India
- Participants: India, Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies
- Winners: Australia
Women's Cricket World Cup - 2017
- Location: England
- Participants: England, Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies
- Winners: England
Women's Cricket World Cup - 2022
- Location: New Zealand
- Participants: New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies
- Winners: Australia
Tropes about the Cricket World Cup in general
- Audience-Alienating Era: The England team were perennial favorites and three time finalists for the first five instances of the World Cup. Then they entered a prolonged slump beginning in ‘93 and one they wouldn’t emerge from until winning the World Cup outright in a nail-biting finish in 2019.
- Down to the Last Play: Two matches between India and Australia in two consecutive world cups would see the match coming down to the last ball of the 50th over - and in both occasions, Australia winning by 1 run. In their league match in the 87 Reliance Cup, India needed 2 runs to win off the last ball. Tail ender Maninder Singh would be bowled for a duck, granting Australia the win. In their match in the 92 World Cup, India needed 4 runs to win off the final ball. Although the ball was hit to the boundary, it was intercepted and thrown back to the pitch. Substitute wicket keeper David Boon would effect a run out as the Indian batsmen attempted to run a third run to tie. Australia would once again, win by just 1 run.
- Every Year They Fizzle Out: Every four years. The South African team are infamous for being chokers in important World Cup games. They dominated their group but lost to the West Indies in the Quarter final in ‘96, they lost a close semifinal to Australia where the Australian skipper literally exclaimed “You just dropped the World Cup, mate!” And in 2003, they muffed up the asking run rate calculations to qualify for the Super Six stage.
- Not the Intended Use: New Zealand in ‘92 and later Sri Lanka in ‘96 took advantage of fielding restrictions in the first 15 overs of a one-day innings to aggressively pinch hit and score easy runs, instead of using the time to gauge the eccentricities of the pitch and fine tune their hand eye coordination.
- Shocking Defeat Legacy: Once the West Indies team was on top of the world, winning two consecutive World Cups and being favored to win a third. But since they lost that final to India, the West Indies have never achieved any success in a World Cup, being seen as an average level team. They could not even qualify for the 2023 World Cup, losing out to the Netherlands in a qualifier match.
