Report by Prashasti Kulkarni
As India heads into the finals of the World Cup, we bring you a brief history of the event, and why it’s so important to sports fans.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) was founded in 1909. Back then, only England, South Africa and Australia were part of it. They played a tournament in 1912 as a test, but because of bad weather and lack of public interest, the tournament did not continue.
For a while, countries around the world would continue to play matches against each other, but in the 1960s, the ODI (One Day International) format began to spread. This essentially meant that one match with a fixed number of overs (then 60, now 50) would be held between international teams in one day. The tournament would consist of a lot of these matches, and one country’s team would be declared as the winner.
The first tournament that was played as a Cricket World Cup was a women’s tournament played in 1973. The tournament was organized by the International Women’s Cricket Council, which was merged with the ICC in 2005.
The first tournament organized for men’s Cricket World Cup was in 1975. Since then, more countries have joined the ICC and the tournaments are played every 4 years.
At first, the tournaments were played only in England and each team played 60 overs. In 1987, India and Pakistan became the first countries to host the CWC outside of England. This switch caused the change of playing 50 overs each team instead of 60, to accommodate the matches within India’s daylight hours.
Past Tournaments of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup
- 1975- This tournament was hosted by England, and the West Indies team won.
- 1979- England hosted this tournament too, and again, West Indies was declared the winner.
- 1983- England was the host for this world cup too, and this time, India won.
- 1987- This was the first CWC tournament hosted outside of England. India and Pakistan acted as co-hosts, and the winner was Australia.
- 1992- Due to some confusion about the dates, the 1991 tournament was moved to 1992. Pakistan was the winner of this cup, while Australia and New Zealand were the hosts.
- 1996- This tournament was hosted by Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India. Some controversy followed this decision, as teams were refusing to play in Sri Lanka. After the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was bombed, Australia and West Indies forfeited their matches, which were to be played in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Due to this, Sri Lanka was granted two points by the ICC, which qualified them for the quarterfinals. They ended up winning the tournament.
- 1999- This tournament, which was played a year early to avoid clashing with the 2000 Olympic Games, was hosted by England, with matches being played in other places such as Scotland, Wales and Ireland also. Australia was the winner of this cup.
- 2003- South Africa hosted this tournament, while Australia was the winner.
- 2007- This time, the host was the West Indies. Australia was once again the winner, securing a record as the only team who has won CWC thrice in a row. This tournament was also plagued by controversy, due to the loss of Bob Woolmer, the coach of the Pakistan team.
- 2011- The hosts were India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The final match was the first all-Asian final in CWC.
- 2015- This tournament was hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The final match was between the hosts themselves, and Australia was the winner.
- 2019- England and Wales hosted this cup, with England emerging as the winner. This World cup final was between England and New Zealand, who ended up tied. A super over was held and in that match also they were tied. However, due to the boundary countback rule, which counts the 4s and 6s scored by the team, England won the cup. After the match, ICC changed the super over regulations and removed the boundary count rule. Now, teams that are tied will continue to play Super Overs until one team wins the match.
- 2023- This is the CWC tournament that is being held currently. Update: The final match was played between India and Australia. Australia won.
Today’s final between India and Australia will take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, starting at 2 p.m. as usual.
Featured Image: Sudarshan Pattnaik’s sand art to wish Team India all the best!
Hello,
Thanks for sharing this, this is very insightful for the kids.
One quick observation, in the last section the information regarding the teams playing the final today is inaccurate, should have been India vs Australia.
Thanks,
Abhijit
Thank you for pointing out this very important error. We have corrected it. Thank you!
Thank you for the update. Point number 13 still shows incorrect information, you may want to have a look.
This is what it says: “India is hosting, and the finals are today, between Australia and New Zealand”
Thank you! This article was published as received and we now understand why that should NEVER be done. Thank you so much for looking over the article, and for your patience with pointing out silly mistakes not once but twice! 🙁 truly an improvement moment for us.