Cricket World Cup facts for kids
Cricket World Cup Trophy
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| Administrator | International Cricket Council (ICC) |
|---|---|
| Format | One Day International |
| First edition | 1975 England |
| Latest edition | 2023 India |
| Next edition | 2027 South Africa - Zimbabwe - Namibia |
| Number of teams | 10 (14 from 2027) |
| Current champion |  Australia (6th title) |
| Most successful | Australia (6 titles) |
| Most runs |  Sachin Tendulkar (2,278) |
| Most wickets | Glenn McGrath (71) |
The ICC Cricket World Cup is an international cricket competition. It is played in the One Day International (ODI) cricket format. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC). Cricket World Cup is the third largest sporting event in the world, behind soccer's World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games. 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 nations. They are joined by other nations who qualify through the Cup Qualifying competition.
Australia has won the tournament six times, India and West Indies twice each, while Pakistan, Sri Lanka and England have won it once each. The best performance by a non-full-member team came when Kenya made the semi-finals of the 2003 tournament.
Australia is the current champion after winning the 2023 World Cup in India. The subsequent 2027 World Cup will be held jointly in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.
Contents
Creation
The first ever international cricket match was played between Canada and the United States, on the 24 and 25 September 1844. However, the first credited 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 multi team competition at international level was the 1912 Triangular Tournament. It was a Test cricket tournament played in England between England, Australia and South Africa. In subsequent years, international Test cricket has been generally been organised as bilateral series. A multi team Test tournament was not organised again until the quadrangular Asian Test Championship in 1999.
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.
Format
Qualification
The Test-playing nations qualify automatically for the World Cup main event, while the other teams have to qualify through a series of preliminary qualifying tournaments. The One Day International playing nations automatically enter the final qualification tournament, the World Cup Qualifier, along with other nations who have qualified through separate competitions.
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 the Associate and Affiliate members of the ICC more opportunities to qualify.The name "ICC Trophy" has been changed to "ICC World Cup Qualifier".
Tournament
The format of the Cricket World Cup has changed greatly over the course of its history. The first four tournaments were played by eight teams, divided into two groups of four. The competition was held in two stages. A group stage and a knock-out stage. The four teams in each group played each other once in the group stage. The top two teams in each group went through 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 made bigger 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. The top three teams in each pool went into the Super 6. The "Super 6" teams played the three other teams that had made it through from the other group. The teams carried their points forward from the matches played against the other two who were in their group. The top four teams from the "Super 6" stage progressed to the semi-finals, with winners playing in the final.
The last format used in the 2007 World Cup, features 16 teams allocated into four groups of four. Each team played each other once within the group. Teams earn points for wins and half-points for ties. The top two teams from each group move forward to the Super 8 round. The "Super 8" teams play the other six teams that progressed from the different groups. Teams earned points in the same way as the group stage. Teams also carry their points forward from the match against the other team who qualified from the same group. The top four teams from the "Super 8" round advance to the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finals play in the final.
The current format features 14 teams. The 14 teams are split into two groups of seven. Within each group each team will play each other once. The top four teams from each group will proceed to the knock out stage playing quarter-finals. Winners of the quarter-finals will play semi-finals and the winning semi-finalists will play 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.
Media coverage
The tournament is the world's third largest (with only the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympics exceeding it), being televised in over 200 countries to over 2.2 billion television viewers. Television rights, mainly for the 2011 and 2015 World Cup, were sold for over US$1.1 billion, and sponsorship rights were sold for a further US$500 million. The 2003 Cricket World Cup matches were attended by 626,845 people, while the 2007 Cricket World Cup sold more than 672,000 tickets and recorded the highest ticketing revenue for a Cricket World Cup.
Successive World Cup tournaments have generated increasing media attention as One-Day International cricket has become more established. The 2003 World Cup in South Africa was the first to sport a mascot, Dazzler the zebra. An orange raccoon-like creature known as Mello was the mascot for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
Selection of hosts
The International Cricket Council's executive committee votes for the hosts of the tournament after examining the bids made by the nations keen to hold a Cricket World Cup.
England hosted the first three competitions. The ICC decided that England should host the first tournament because it was ready to devote the resources required to organising the inaugural event. India volunteered to host the third Cricket World Cup, but most ICC members believed England to be a more suitable venue because the longer period of daylight in England in June meant that a match could be completed in one day. The 1987 Cricket World Cup was the first hosted outside England, held in Pakistan and India.
Results
| Edition | Year | Host(s) | Final venue | Winners | Runners-up | Margin | Teams |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1975 | England | Lord's, London |  West Indies291/8 (60 overs) |
Australia 274 all out (58.4 overs) |
17 runs |
8 |
| 2 | 1979 | England | Lord's, London | West Indies 286/9 (60 overs) |
 England194 all out (51 overs) |
92 runs |
8 |
| 3 | 1983 |
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Lord's, London | India 183 all out (54.4 overs) |
West Indies 140 all out (52 overs) |
43 runs |
8 |
| 4 | 1987 |
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Eden Gardens, Kolkata | Australia 253/5 (50 overs) |
England 246/8 (50 overs) |
7 runs |
8 |
| 5 | 1992 |
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Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne |  Pakistan249/6 (50 overs) |
England 227 all out (49.2 overs) |
22 runs |
9 |
| 6 | 1996 |
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Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore |  Sri Lanka245/3 (46.2 overs) |
Australia 241/7 (50 overs) |
7 wickets |
12 |
| 7 | 1999 |
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Lord's, London | Australia 133/2 (20.1 overs) |
Pakistan 132 all out (39 overs) |
8 wickets |
12 |
| 8 | 2003 |
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Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg | Australia 359/2 (50 overs) |
India 234 all out (39.2 overs) |
125 runs |
14 |
| 9 | 2007 | West Indies | Kensington Oval, Bridgetown | Australia 281/4 (38 overs) |
Sri Lanka 215/8 (36 overs) |
53 runs (D/L) |
16 |
| 10 | 2011 |
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Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai | India 277/4 (48.2 overs) |
Sri Lanka 274/6 (50 overs) |
6 wickets |
14 |
| 11 | 2015 |
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Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne | Australia 186/3 (33.1 overs) |
 New Zealand183 all out (45 overs) |
7 wickets |
14 |
| 12 | 2019 |
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Lord's, London | England 241 all out (50 overs) 15/0 (super over) 24 fours, 2 sixes |
New Zealand 241/8 (50 overs) 15/1 (super over) 14 fours, 3 sixes |
Match Tied (9 boundaries) Boundary countback after super over |
10 |
| 13 | 2023 | India | Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad | Australia 241/4 (43 overs) |
India 240 all out (50 overs) |
6 wickets |
10 |
Teams' performances
An overview of the teams' performances in every World Cup is given below. For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.
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Host
Team |
1975 (8) |
1979 (8) |
1983 (8) |
1987 (8) |
1992 (9) |
1996 (12) |
1999 (12) |
2003 (14) |
2007 (16) |
2011 (14) |
2015 (14) |
2019 (10) |
2023 (10) |
Apps. |
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 Afghanistan |
GP | 10th | 6th | 3 | ||||||||||
| Australia |
RU | GP | GP | W | 5th | RU | W | W | W | QF | W | SF | W | 13 |
| Bangladesh |
GP | GP | 7th | GP | QF | 8th | 8th | 7 | ||||||
 Bermuda |
GP | 1 | ||||||||||||
 Canada |
GP | GP | GP | GP | 4 | |||||||||
| England |
SF | RU | SF | RU | RU | QF | GP | GP | 5th | QF | GP | W | 7th | 13 |
| India |
GP | GP | W | SF | 7th | SF | 6th | RU | GP | W | SF | SF | RU | 13 |
 Ireland |
8th | GP | GP | 3 | ||||||||||
| Kenya |
GP | GP | SF | GP | GP | 5 | ||||||||
 Namibia |
GP | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Netherlands |
GP | GP | GP | GP | 10th | 5 | ||||||||
| New Zealand |
SF | SF | GP | GP | SF | QF | SF | 5th | SF | SF | RU | RU | SF | 13 |
| Pakistan |
GP | SF | SF | SF | W | QF | RU | GP | GP | SF | QF | 5th | 5th | 13 |
| Scotland |
GP | GP | GP | 3 | ||||||||||
| South Africa |
SF | QF | SF | GP | SF | QF | SF | 7th | SF | 9 | ||||
| Sri Lanka |
GP | GP | GP | GP | 8th | W | GP | SF | RU | RU | QF | 6th | 9th | 13 |
 United Arab Emirates |
GP | GP | 2 | |||||||||||
| West Indies |
W | W | RU | GP | 6th | SF | GP | GP | 6th | QF | QF | 9th | 12 | |
| Zimbabwe |
GP | GP | 9th | GP | 5th | 6th | GP | GP | GP | 9 | ||||
| Defunct teams | ||||||||||||||
 East Africa |
GP | 1 | ||||||||||||
Legend
- W – Winner
- RU– Runner up
- SF– Semi-finals
- S6– Super Six (1999–2003)
- QF– Quarter-finals (1996, 2011–2015)
- S8– Super Eight (2007)
- GP – Group stage / First round
- Q – Qualified, Still in Competition
Tournament records
| World Cup records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Batting | ||
| Most runs | Sachin Tendulkar |
2,278 (1992–2011) |
| Highest average (min. 10 inns.) | Lance Klusener |
124.00 (1999–2003) |
| Highest batting strike rate (min. 500 balls faced) | Glenn Maxwell |
160.32 (2015–2023) |
| Highest score | Martin Guptill v  West Indies |
237* (2015) |
| Highest partnership | Chris Gayle & Marlon Samuels (2nd wicket) v Zimbabwe |
372 (2015) |
| Most runs in a single world cup | Virat Kohli |
765 (2023) |
| Most hundreds | Rohit Sharma |
7 (2015–2023) |
| Most hundreds in a single world cup | Rohit Sharma |
5 (2019) |
| Bowling | ||
| Most wickets | Glenn McGrath |
71 (1996–2007) |
| Lowest average (min. 400 balls bowled) | Mohammed Shami |
13.52 (2015–2023) |
| Best strike rate (min. 20 wickets) | Mohammed Shami |
15.81 (2015–2023) |
| Best economy rate (min. 1000 balls bowled) | Andy Roberts |
3.24 (1975–1983) |
| Best bowling figures | Glenn McGrath v Namibia |
7/15 (2003) |
| Most wickets in a tournament | Mitchell Starc |
27 (2019) |
| Fielding | ||
| Most dismissals (wicket-keeper) | Kumar Sangakkara |
54 (2003–2015) |
| Most catches (fielder) | Ricky Ponting |
28 (1996–2011) |
| Team | ||
| Highest score | South Africa v Sri Lanka |
428/5 (2023) |
| Lowest score | Canada v Sri Lanka |
36 (2003) |
| Highest win % | Australia |
75.48% (Played 105, Won 78) |
| Most consecutive wins | Australia |
27 (20 Jun 1999 – 19 Mar 2011, one N/R excluded) |
| Most consecutive tournament wins | Australia |
3 (1999–2007) |
By tournament
| Year | Winning Captain | Player of the final | Player of the tournament | Most runs | Most wickets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Clive Lloyd |
Clive Lloyd |
Not Awarded | Glenn Turner (333) |
Gary Gilmour (11) |
| 1979 | Clive Lloyd |
Viv Richards |
Not Awarded | Gordon Greenidge (253) |
Mike Hendrick (10) |
| 1983 | Kapil Dev |
Mohinder Amarnath |
Not Awarded | David Gower (384) |
Roger Binny (18) |
| 1987 | Allan Border |
David Boon |
Not Awarded | Graham Gooch (471) |
Craig McDermott (18) |
| 1992 | Imran Khan |
Wasim Akram |
Martin Crowe |
Martin Crowe (456) |
Wasim Akram (18) |
| 1996 | Arjuna Ranatunga |
Aravinda de Silva |
Sanath Jayasuriya |
Sachin Tendulkar (523) |
Anil Kumble (15) |
| 1999 | Steve Waugh |
Shane Warne |
Lance Klusener |
Rahul Dravid (461) |
Geoff Allott / Shane Warne (20) |
| 2003 | Ricky Ponting |
Ricky Ponting |
Sachin Tendulkar |
Sachin Tendulkar (673) |
Chaminda Vaas (23) |
| 2007 | Ricky Ponting |
Adam Gilchrist |
Glenn McGrath |
Matthew Hayden (659) |
Glenn McGrath (26) |
| 2011 | Mahendra Singh Dhoni |
Mahendra Singh Dhoni |
Yuvraj Singh |
Tillakaratne Dilshan (500) |
Zaheer Khan / Shahid Afridi (21) |
| 2015 | Michael Clarke |
James Faulkner |
Mitchell Starc |
Martin Guptill (547) |
Trent Boult / Mitchell Starc (22) |
| 2019 | Eoin Morgan |
Ben Stokes |
Kane Williamson |
Rohit Sharma (648) |
Mitchell Starc (27) |
| 2023 | Pat Cummins |
Travis Head |
Virat Kohli |
Virat Kohli (765) |
Mohammed Shami (24) |
Related pages
- U/19 Cricket World Cup
- Women's Cricket World Cup
Images for kids
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From left to right: All the official trophies of Cricket World Cup from 1975–Present
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The Prudential Cup trophy
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1996 ICC Cricket World Cup trophy
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A crowd of over 10,000 fans welcome the Australian team on completing the first World Cup hat-trick – Martin Place, Sydney.
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England perform a lap of honour around Lord's after their victory on 14 July 2019.
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Mello, the mascot of the 2007 World Cup
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Martin Crowe was the first player to be named Man of the Tournament
See also
In Spanish: Copa Mundial de Críquet para niños
