The World Cup of Cricket

The ICC Cricket World Cup, generally referred to as the Cricket World Cup, is the premier international championship of men's One-day International (ODI) cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament which is held every four years. According to the ICC, it is the most important tournament and the pinnacle of achievement in the sport.[1][2] The first Cricket World Cup contest was organised in England in 1975. A separate Women's Cricket World Cup has been held every four years since 1973.

The finals of the Cricket World Cup are contested by all ten Test-playing and ODI-playing nations, together with other national teams that qualify through the ICC Trophy competition. Australia has been the most successful of the five teams to have won the tournament, taking three titles. The West Indies have won twice, while India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have each won once.

The most recent Cricket World Cup finals were held between 9 February and 24 March 2003, in Southern Africa. Australia defeated India in the final to retain the championship.[3] The next tournament will be held in the West Indies in 2007, and will feature sixteen teams. The format of the finals has evolved from tournament to tournament. The next World Cup will consist of a pool stage (played in round robin format), then a "super 8" stage, followed by semi-finals and a final.

History

Before the first Cricket World Cup
The first cricket Test match was played in 1877 between Australia and England, and the two teams competed regularly for The Ashes in subsequent years. South Africa was admitted to Test status in 1889. Representative cricket teams were selected to tour each other, resulting in bilateral competition. Cricket was also included as an Olympic sport at the 1900 Paris Games, where Great Britain defeated France to win the gold medal.This was the only appearance of cricket at the Summer Olympics.

The first multilateral competition at international level was the 1912 Triangular Tournament, a Test cricket tournament played in England between all three Test playing nations at the time: England, Australia and South Africa. The event was not a success: the summer was exceptionally wet, making play difficult on damp uncovered piches, and attendances were poor, attributed to a "surfeit of cricket". In subsequent years, international Test cricket has been generally been organised as bilateral series: a multilateral Test tournament was not organised again until the quadrangular Asian Test Championship in 1999.

The number of nations playing Test cricket increased gradually over the years, with the addition of West Indies in 1928, New Zealand in 1930, and India in 1932, and Pakistan in 1952, but international cricket continued to be played as Test matches over three, four or five days.

In the early 1960s, English county cricket teams began playing a shortened version of cricket which only lasted for one day. Starting in 1962 with a four-team knockout competition known as the Midlands Knock-Out Cup,and continuing with the inaugural Gillette Cup in 1963, one-day cricket grew in popularity in England. A national Sunday League was formed in 1969. The first One-day International event was played on the fifth day of a rain-aborted Test match between England and Australia at Melbourne in 1971, to fill the time available and as compensation for the frustrated crowd. It was a forty over match with eight balls per over.

The success and popularity of the domestic one-day competitions in England and other parts of the world, as well as the early One-day Internationals, prompted the ICC to consider organising a Cricket World Cup.

Prudential World Cups
The inaugural Cricket World Cup was hosted in 1975 by England, the only nation with the resources to stage an event of such magnitude at that time. The first three tournaments were held in England and officially known as the Prudential Cup after the sponsors Prudential plc. The matches consisted of 60 six-ball overs per team, played during the daytime in traditional form, with the players wearing cricket whites and using red cricket balls.

Eight teams participated in the first tournament: Australia, England, the West Indies, Pakistan, India, and New Zealand (the six Test nations at the time), together with Sri Lanka and a composite team from East Africa. One notable omission was South Africa, who were banned from international cricket due to apartheid. The tournament was won by the West Indies, who defeated Australia by 17 runs in the final at Lord's.

The 1979 World Cup saw the introduction of the ICC Trophy competition to select non-Test playing teams for the World Cup, with Sri Lanka and Canada qualifying. West Indies won a second consecutive World Cup tournament, defeating England by 92 runs in the final. At a meeting which followed the World Cup, the International Cricket Conference agreed to make the competition a quadrennial event.

The 1983 event was hosted by England for a third consecutive time. By this time, Sri Lanka had become a Test playing nation, and Zimbabwe qualified through the ICC Trophy. A fielding circle was introduced, 30 yards away from the stumps. Four fieldsmen needed to be inside it at all times.India, an outsider quoted at 66-1 to win by bookmakers before the competition began, were crowned champions after upsetting the West Indies by 43 runs in the final.

1987 – present
The 1987 tournament was held in India and Pakistan, the first time that the competition was held outside England. The games were reduced from 60 to 50 overs per innings, the current standard, because of the shorter daylight hours in the Indian subcontinent compared with England's summer.Australia won the championship by defeating England by 7 runs in the final, the closest margin in World Cup final history.

The 1992 World Cup, held in Australia and New Zealand, introduced many changes to the game, such as coloured clothing, white balls, day/night matches, and an alteration to the fielding restrictions. The South African cricket team participated in the event for the first time, following the fall of the apartheid regime and the end of the international sports boycott.Pakistan overcame a dismal start to emerge as winners, defeating England by 22 runs in the final.

The 1996 championship was held in the Indian subcontinent for a second time, with the inclusion of Sri Lanka as host for some of its group stage matches. In the semi-final, Sri Lanka, heading towards a crushing victory over India at Eden Gardens (Calcutta) after their hosts lost eight wickets while scoring 120 runs in pursuit of 254, were awarded victory by default after riots broke out in protest against the Indian performance.Sri Lanka went on to win their maiden championship by defeating Australia by seven wickets in the final, which was held in Lahore.

In 1999 the event was hosted by England, with some matches also being held in Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands. Australia qualified for the final after reaching their target in their Super Six match against South Africa off the final over of the match and proceeded to the final after a tie in the semi-final (also against South Africa) in which a mix-up between South African batsmen Lance Klusener and Allan Donald saw Donald drop his bat and stranded mid-pitch to be run out. In the final, Australia dismissed Pakistan for 132 and then reaching the target in less than 20 overs, with eight wickets in hand.

South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya hosted the 2003 World Cup. The number of teams participating in the event increased from twelve to fourteen. Kenya's victories over Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, and a forfeit by the New Zealand team, which refused to play in Kenya because of security concerns, enabled Kenya to reach the semi finals, where they lost to India. In the final, Australia made 359 runs for the loss of two wickets, the largest ever total in a final, defeating India by 125 runs.

Qualification
The Test-playing nations and ODI-playing nations qualify automatically for the the World Cup finals, while the other teams have to qualify through a series of preliminary qualifying tournaments.

Qualifying tournaments were introduced for the second World Cup, where two of the eight places in the finals were awarded to the leading teams in the ICC Trophy. The number of teams selected through the ICC Trophy has varied throughout the years. Currently, six teams are selected for the Cricket World Cup. The World Cricket League (administered by the International Cricket Council) is the qualification system provided to allow of Associate and Affiliate members of the ICC more opportunities to qualify. In 2009, the name "ICC Trophy" will be changed to "ICC World Cup Qualifier".

Under the current qualifying process, the World Cricket League, all 87 Associate and Affiliate members of the ICC are able to qualify for the World Cup. Associate and Affiliate members must play between two and five stages in the ICC World Cricket League to qualify for the World Cup finals, depending on the Division in which they start the qualifying process.

Process summary in chronological order:

Regional tournaments: Top teams from each regional tournaments will be promoted to a division depending on the teams' rankings according to the ICC and each division's empty spots.
Division One: 6 Teams - All qualify for the World Cup Qualifier.
Division Three: 8 Teams – Top 2 promoted to Division Two.
Division Two: 6 Teams – Top 4 qualify for the World Cup Qualifier.
Division Five: 8 Teams – Top 2 promoted to Division Four.
Division Four: 5 Teams - Top 2 promoted to Division Three.
Division Three(second edition): 6 Teams – Top 2 qualify for the World Cup Qualifier.
World Cup Qualifier: 12 Teams – Top 6 are awarded ODI status and qualify for the World Cup.

Tournament
The format of the Cricket World Cup has changed greatly over the course of its history. Each of the first four tournaments was played by eight teams, divided into two groups of four. There competition comprised two stages, a group stage and a knock-out stage. The four teams in each group played each other in the round-robin group stage, with the top two teams in each group progressing to the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finals played against each other in the final.

With the return of South Africa in 1992 after the ending of the apartheid boycott, nine teams played each other once in the group phase, and the top four teams progressed to the semi-finals. The tournament was further expanded in 1996, with two groups of six teams. The top four teams from each group progressed to quarter-finals and semi-finals.

A new format was used for the 1999 and 2003 World Cups. The teams were split into two pools, with the top three teams in each pool advancing to the "Super 6" stage where all six teams played each other once. As they advanced, the teams carried their points forward from previous matches against the teams advancing alongside them, giving the teams an incentive to perform well in the group stages. The top four teams from the "Super 6" stage progressed to the semi-finals, with winners playing in the final.

The 2007 World Cup will feature 16 teams allocated into four groups of four. Within each group, the teams will play each other in a round-robin format. Teams will earn points for wins and half-points for ties. The top two teams from each group, a total of eight, will move forward to the "Super 8" round. The "Super 8" teams will play the other six teams that progressed from different groups. Teams will earn points in the same way as the group stage, but will also bring points scored against the other team who qualified from the same group to the "Super 8" stage. The top four teams from the "Super 8" round will advance to the semi-finals, and the winners of the semi-finals will compete in the final.

Trophy
The ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy is presented to the winners of the World Cup finals. The current trophy was created for the 1999 championships, and was the first permanent prize in the tournament's history; prior to this, different trophies were made for each World Cup. The trophy was designed and produced in London by a team of craftsmen from Garrard & Co over a period of two months.

The current trophy is made from silver and gild, and features a golden globe held up by three silver columns. The columns, shaped as stumps and bails, represent the three fundamental aspects of cricket: batting, bowling and fielding, while the globe characterises a cricket ball. The trophy is designed with platonic dimensions, so that it can be easily recognised from any angle. It stands 60 cm high and weighs approximately 11 kilograms. The names of the previous winners are engraved on the base of the trophy, with space for a total of twenty inscriptions.

The original trophy is kept by the ICC. A replica, which differs only in the inscriptions, is permanently awarded to the winning team.

Cricket World Cup. (2007, February 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:14, February 19, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cricket_World_Cup&oldid=109037682

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