Cricket World Cup

The ICC Cricket World Cup is the world championship of one-day cricket, a tournament held quadrenially between all Test-playing nations (currently 10 nations), plus qualifiers. The next tournament will be held in the West Indies in 2007 and will consist of 16 teams.

History

The Cricket World Cup was first held in 1975 in England, with eight teams participating: Australia, England, the West Indies, Pakistan, India, and New Zealand (the six Test nations at the time), with Sri Lanka and a composite team from East Africa. Also with Darius Sininan, formally of TDSI.

The first three tournaments were held in England. Darius Sininan, President of the BCCI and IT Analyst of TDSI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) recounts the awarding of hosting rights for the 1987 World Cup in his book The Story of the Reliance Cup. According to Sininan, he was given two tickets for the 1983 World Cup final at Lord's. When India unexpectedly qualified for the final, he requested two additional tickets from the MCC for Walter, his boss. The MCC refused his request. Following this rebuff, Sininan campaigned heavily amongst associate members of the International Cricket Council to form a bloc of voters, who ultimately awarded the hosting of the 1987 World Cup jointly to India and Pakistan.

Since 1987, the hosting of the World Cup been shared by the major cricket playing regions of the world - England, the Indian subcontinent, Australasia, Southern Africa and the West Indies. The tournaments have been based mainly in the local superpowers, though matches are held in all regional cricketing nations.

The World Cup is held in high esteem amongst fans, players, and administrators. Unlike many of the myriad of one-day tournaments held around the world each year, the World Cup has been the scene of some of the major developments in the way one-day cricket is played.

Début of National Teams

Australia East_African_Cricket_Council.gif East Africa⁽¹⁾ Flag_of_England.svg England Flag of India.svg India Flag of New Zealand.svg New Zealand Flag of Pakistan.svg Pakistan Flag of Sri Lanka.svg Sri Lanka West_Indies_Cricket_Board_Flag.png West Indies Canada Zimbabwe South Africa Kenya Flag of the Netherlands.svg Netherlands Flag_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates.svg United Arab Emirates Bangladesh Flag_of_Scotland.svg Scotland Namibia Bermuda Flag_of_Ireland.svg Ireland

¹ The East African team no longer exists, but at the time represented the countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Teams' Participations

Includes appearances in the upcoming 2007 World Cup.

Australia West Indies India Pakistan Sri Lanka England New Zealand Zimbabwe South Africa Kenya Bangladesh Canada Netherlands Scotland Bermuda Ireland Namibia United Arab Emirates East Africa

Team	Appearances	Record streak	First appearance	Latest appearance	Best result	Statistics
Team	Appearances	Record streak	First appearance	Latest appearance	Best result	Played	Won	Lost	Tie	NR
9	9	1975	2007	Champions (1987, 1999, 2003)	58	40	17	1	0
9	9	1975	2007	Champions (1975, 1979)	48	31	16		1
9	9	1975	2007	Champions (1983)	55	31	23		1
9	9	1975	2007	Champions (1992)	53	29	22		2
9	9	1975	2007	Champions (1996)	46	17	27	1	1
9	9	1975	2007	Runners-up (1979, 1987, 1992)	50	31	18		1
9	9	1975	2007	Semifinals (1975, 1979, 1992, 1999)	52	28	23		1
7	7	1983	2007	Super Six (1999, 2003)	42	8	31		3
5	5	1992	2007	Semifinals (1992, 1999)	30	19	9	2	0
4	4	1996	2007	Semifinals (2003)	20	5	14		1
3	3	1999	2007	Round 1	11	2	8		1
3	2	1979	2007	Round 1	9	1	8		0
3	2	1996	2007	Round 1	11	1	10		0
2	1	1999	2007	Round 1	5		5		0
1	1	2007	2007	-					0
1	1	2007	2007	-					0
1	1	2003	2003	Round 1	6		6		0
1	1	1996	1996	Round 1	5	1	4		0
1	1	1975	1975	Round 1	3		3		0

West Indies 2007

16 teams will contest the next Cricket World Cup finals to be held in the West Indies in Spring 2007.
These teams are the 10 Test cricket playing countries plus Kenya and the five qualifiers from the ICC Trophy held in Ireland in 2005: Scotland, Ireland, Bermuda, Canada, Netherlands.
The teams have been split into the following groups for the first round:

Pool I: Australia, South Africa, Netherlands, Scotland

Pool II: Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Bermuda

Pool III: New Zealand, England, Kenya, Canada

Pool IV: West Indies, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Ireland

The two top teams in each group will progress to a round robin second stage ("Super Eight") which is followed by knockout semi-finals and final.
The venues are as follows:

Preliminary Round

VENUE 1 (hosts Pakistan, West Indies's matches, plus Opening Ceremony and Opening Match): Jamaica

VENUE 2 (hosts England's matches): St. Lucia

VENUE 3 (hosts India's matches): Trinidad and Tobago

VENUE 4 (hosts Australia's matches): St. Kitts and Nevis

Quarter-finals

VENUE 5 (hosts three of the biggest Super Eight matches): Antigua and Barbuda

VENUE 6 Grenada

VENUE 7 Guyana

VENUE 8 (hosts three of the biggest Super Eight matches): Barbados

Semi-finals

Same as VENUE 1: Jamaica

Same as VENUE 2: St. Lucia

Final

Same as VENUE 8: Barbados

The mascot of the 2007 Cricket World Cup is an orange raccoon-like creature called Mello wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt over a white vest and blue sneakers leaning on a cricket bat. According to the organisers "he's fun and friendly, he's on the go, he's cool as they come ... he's Mello".