The Cricket World Cup is the world championship of one-day cricket, a tournament held quadrenially between all Test cricket playing nations, as well as several representatives from other cricket-playing nations who qualify through a series of qualifying matches.

History

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

Since 1987, the hosting of the World Cup been shared by the major cricket playing regions of the world:

• the Indian subcontinent,
• western Europe,
• Australasia, and
• Africa.

The tournaments have focused on the local superpowers, though matches are held in all regional cricketing nations.

In 2007, the championship will be held in the remaining notable cricketing region: the West Indies.

The World Cup is held in high esteem amongst fans, players, and administrators, unlike some of the myriad 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.

WINNERS: 1975 - West Indies, 1979 - West Indies, 1983 - India, 1987 - Australia, 1991/1992 - Pakistan, 1996 - Sri Lanka, 1999 - Australia, 2003 - Australia

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 ODI (one-day international) status: currently Kenya
• Qualifiers from the ICC Trophy , the 'World Cup for minor countries': the 3 qualifiers for 2003 were Netherlands , Namibia and Canada .