Cricket World Cup History

World Cup Trophy The ICC Cricket World Cup is the premier international championship of men's One Day International (ODI) cricket. This event is organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC), with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament which is held every four years which is known as Cricket World Cup. The tournament is the world's fourth-largest and fourth-most-viewed sporting event. According to the ICC, it is the most important tournament and the pinnacle of achievement in the sport. The first Cricket World Cup contest was organised in England in 1975.

A Cricket world cup can be reffered as ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC World Twenty20 (cricket), Indoor Cricket World Cup and Women's Cricket World Cup. But we are going to provide you only the informations related to ICC Cricket World Cup and ICC World Twenty20 only.

The 2011 Cricket World Cup was co-hosted by Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka from 19 February to 2 April 2011. 14 countries participated in the tournament. India won the cup by defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final in Mumbai on 2 April and became the first team to win the World Cup final on home soil.

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.

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. Stumpy, a blue elephant was the mascot for the 2011 World Cup.

Cricket World Cup Winners List

YEAR	WINNER	RUNNER UP
World Cup Cricket 2011	India	Sri Lanka
World Cup Cricket 2007	Australia	Sri Lanka
World Cup Cricket 2003	Australia	India
World Cup Cricket 1999	Australia	Pakistan
World Cup Cricket 1996	Sri Lanka	Australia
World Cup Cricket 1992	Pakistan	England
World Cup Cricket 1987	Australia	England
World Cup Cricket 1983	India	West Indies
World Cup Cricket 1979	West Indies	England
World Cup Cricket 1975	West Indies	Australia

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. The "Super 6" teams played the three other teams that advanced from the other group. As they advanced, the teams carried their points forward from previous matches against other teams advancing alongside them, giving them 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 last format used in the 2007 World Cup, features 16 teams allocated into four groups of four. Within each group, the teams play each other in a round-robin format. 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, but carrying their points forward from previous matches against the other teams who qualified from the same group to the "Super 8" stage. The top four teams from the "Super 8" round advance to the semi-finals, and the winners of the semi-finals play in the final.

The current format, approved by ICC to be used in 2011 World Cup, features 14 teams allocated. Within each group, the teams will play in a round-robin format. 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.