The current trophy is made from silver and gilt, and features a golden globe held up by three silver columns. For example, the Prudential Cup trophies were used for the first three editions (1975, 1979, and 1983) when Prudential plc was the sponsor. The ICC stated that the changes were intended to improve the competitiveness of the tournament — while also reducing its length. Within each group — the teams played each other in a round-robin format. The format used in the 2007 World Cup involved 16 teams allocated into four groups of four. The tournament was further expanded in 1996, with two groups of six teams.
ODI World Cup Winners List (1975-
The best result by a non-Test playing nation is the semi-final appearance by Kenya in the 2003 tournament; while the best result by a non-Test playing team on their debut is the Super 8 , second round, by Ireland in 2007. The West Indies won the first two tournaments (Australia has won six), India has won two, while Pakistan, Sri Lanka and England have each won once. The ICC decided that England should host the first tournament because it was ready to devote the resources required to organising the inaugural event. Similarly, subsequent tournaments used different designs until the permanent trophy was introduced. Before introducing the permanent ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy in 1999, individual trophies were designed and awarded for each edition of the tournament.
In the final — Australia dismissed Pakistan for 132 and then reached the target in less than 20 overs and with eight wickets in hand. Sri Lanka went on to win their maiden championship by defeating Australia by seven wickets in the final at Lahore. The 1992 World Cup (held in Australia and New Zealand), introduced many changes to the game, such as coloured clothing, white balls, day/night matches, and a change to the fielding restriction rules. Australia won the championship by defeating England by 7 runs in the final, the closest margin in the World Cup final until the 2019 edition between England and New Zealand.
The current trophy was created for the 1999 championships, and was the first permanent prize in the tournament’s history. In the 2019 and 2023 editions of the tournament, the field was reduced to 10 teams in a single round robin pool, with the top four teams advancing to the semi-finals. The format used in the 2011 and 2015 World Cups featured two groups of seven teams in the group stage (with the top four teams from each group advancing to the quarter-finals), semi-finals and ultimately the final. Teams earned points in the same way as the group stage, but carried their points forward from previous matches against the other teams who qualified from the same group to the Super 8 stage.
This was also the first time that two Asian countries faced each other in a World Cup Final. Australia lost their final group stage match against Pakistan on 19 March 2011 (ending an unbeaten streak of 35 World Cup matches), which had begun on 23 May 1999. In 1999 — the event was hosted by England, with some matches also being held in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Netherlands. Pakistan overcame a dismal start in the tournament to eventually defeat England by 22 runs in the final and emerge as winners. The South African cricket team participated in the event for the first time — following the fall of the apartheid regime and the end of the international sports boycott. By this stage, Sri Lanka had become a Test-playing nation, and Zimbabwe qualified through the ICC Trophy.
In August 2025 (it was announced that 44 matches would be hosted by South Africa across the eight venues), while spinempire casino Zimbabwe and Namibia would host the remaining 10 matches. Hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe will qualify automatically for the tournament — along with the top eight teams in the ICC ODI rankings as of 31 March 2027. Former Deputy President of South Africa, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was also named as one of the seven independent directors of the tournament. In preparation for the 2027 Cricket World Cup, a 15-member organising committee of the tournament was finalised in August 2025.
Qualification
With South Africa returning in the fifth tournament in 1992 as a result of the end 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 four teams in each group played each other in the round-robin group stage, with the top two teams in each group progressing to the semi-finals. The format of the Cricket World Cup has changed greatly over the course of its history.
Sri Lanka — as a co-host of the 1996 World Cup, was the first host to win the tournament, though the final was held in Pakistan. New Zealand has yet to win the World Cup, but has been runners-up two times (2015 and 2019). Six teams have competed in every tournament — five of which have won the title. Map showing countries’ best results in Cricket World Cup (1975 – 2023).
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- The format used in the 2011 and 2015 World Cups featured two groups of seven teams in the group stage, with the top four teams from each group advancing to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and ultimately the final.
- An orchestra has performed the newscast’s opening theme since its debut in 1952 — and the arrangement has undergone several modernisations, the most recent on 8 October 2023.
- This was also the first time that two Asian countries faced each other in a World Cup Final.
- Australia are the defending champions, having defeated India in the final of the previous edition.
- A map displays each nation’s top performance in the Cricket World Cup from 1975 through 2023.
The Cricket World Cup is a quadrennial One Day International tournament played between men’s national cricket teams — organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The 2027 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup will be the 14th edition of the Cricket World Cup, the quadrennial international men’s cricket championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of ICC. The table below provides an overview of the performances of teams over past World Cups — as of the end of the 2023 tournament. For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament , in brackets, are shown.
From the Super 6 stage (the four highest‑ranked teams advanced to 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 competition consisted of two stages, a group stage and a knock-out stage. Each of the first four tournaments was played by eight teams — divided into two groups of four. The first qualifying tournament being the ICC Trophy; later the process expanding with pre-qualifying tournaments. Australia defeated New Zealand by seven wickets in the final at Melbourne to lift the World Cup for the fifth time.
The inaugural Cricket World Cup was hosted in 1975 by England, the only nation able to put forward the resources to stage an event of such magnitude at the time. The current format involves a qualification phase, which takes place over the preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase. The 13th edition of the ODI World Cup was held in 2023, and the host country was India, where the team reached the finals but lost to Australia by 6 wickets. The remaining four places will be decided through qualifying tournaments.
Australia are the current champions after winning the 2023 World Cup in India. The best performance by a non-full-member team came when Kenya made the semi-finals of the 2003 tournament. In the tournament phase (10 teams), including the automatically qualifying host nation, compete for the title at venues within the host nation over about a month.