Cricket World Cup
From Freepedia
The ICC Cricket World Cup is the world championship of one-day cricket, a tournament held quadrenially between all Test-playing nations, as well as several representatives from other cricket-playing nations who qualify through a series of qualifying matches. The next tournament will be held in the West Indies in 2007.
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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).
The first three tournaments were held in England. N. K. P. Salve, President of the Indian Cricket Board recounts the awarding of hosting rights for the 1987 World Cup in his book The Story of the Reliance Cup. According to Salve, 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 friends who had just arrived from India. The MCC refused his request. Following this rebuff, Salve 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. It has been the scene of some of the major developments in the way one-day cricket is played.
Participating nations
In 2003, the nations that played in the World Cup were:
- All 10 Test nations: Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe
- All other countries with one-day international (ODI) status: currently just Kenya
- Three qualifiers from the ICC Trophy, the equivalent of the World Cup for non-Test countries: the Netherlands, Namibia and Canada.
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 ODI 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 West Indies' 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".
Finals
Links
| Cricket World Cup |
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England 1975 | England 1979 | England 1983 | India/Pakistan 1987 | Australia/New Zealand 1992 | India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka 1996 | England 1999 | South Africa 2003 | West Indies 2007 | To be decided 2011 |
