The history and origin of ICC Cricket World Cup date back to the year 1975, when the ODI biggest tournament was organized for the first time in England.

Cricket World Cup History  In the world of men's ODI cricket, ICC World Cup is regarded as the premier tournament, witnessing participation as well as viewership from all across the globe. Its history dates back to the year 1975, when the inaugural tournament was played on England soil, with the participants being the six Test-playing nations at the time i.e. Australia, England, the West Indies, New Zealand, India, and Pakistan, along with Sri Lanka and a composite team from East Africa. The first three events of the competition were held in England and officially known as the Prudential Cup, after the sponsor - Prudential plc.  The first World Cup, A. K. A. the Prudential Cup Trophy, had matches of 60 overs per innings, with each over comprising of 6 balls. The tournament comprised of daytime matches, played in the traditional form, and was won by West Indies (who defeated Australia in the finals). The Second World Cup saw the introduction of ICC Trophy, held for the purpose of selecting non-Test playing teams for the World Cup. In the first ICC Trophy, Sri Lanka and Canada emerged as the winners. However, the World Cup went, once again, to the West Indies team, who won the final match after defeating the hosts i.e. England. In a meeting following the Second ODI World Cup, the International Cricket Conference decided to make the competition a quadrennial event i.e. an event that would be held only once in four years. So, the next tournament was held in 1983, hosted by England and won by the Indian team (after defeating the previous champions - West Indies - in the final match). It was in this World Cup only that the fielding circle was introduced, 30 yards (27 m) away from the stumps, in which four fieldsmen had to be present at all times. The fourth ICC Cricket World Cup was held in 1987, with India and Pakistan playing the hosts. The tournament saw two new occurrences first, it was the first time that the matches were played outside England and second, the overs were reduced from 60 to 50 per innings. The Australian team won this time, defeating England by 7 runs in the final (this is, till now, the closest margin in World Cup final history). Australia and New Zealand hosted the fifth World Cup, in which Pakistan emerged as the winner, after defeating England. This tournament also saw the introduction of colored clothing, white balls and day/night matches, along with a change in the fielding restrictions The Indian subcontinent once again became the host of World Cup in 1996, when the matches were played in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The final match was played in Lahore and saw Sri Lanka emerging as the winner, defeating Australia by seven wickets. The next tournament was organized, once again, in England, with some matches also being held in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Netherlands. The final match, played between Australia and Pakistan, saw the former claiming its second win. The feat was repeated by Australia in the next World Cup, held in 2003, when it beat India by 125 runs. The eighth World Cup saw the number of participating teams increase to fourteen, from twelve; Kenya's victories over Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe; and forfeiture by New Zealand (because of security reasons). The ninth ODI World Cup was hosted by the West Indies. With this, it became the first such tournament to be hosted on all six populated continents. The competition saw a number of firsts. It was the first time Bangladesh progressed to the 2nd round and it was the first time Ireland played in the World Cup (and even went ahead to the main ODI table). The tournament was won by Australia, registering its fourth win (defeating Sri Lanka in the final match). The 10th ICC Cricket World Cup was hosted by India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. 2011 WC was won by India who defeated Sri Lanka by 6 wickets. India became the first nation to win a world cup final on home soil. Winners List The following is a list of the winning country and runner up for each Cricket World Cup. Click on the country names for more country information, or click on the year for more information about the tournament for that year. year winner runner-up 2011 India Sri Lanka 2007 Australia Sri Lanka 2003 Australia India 1999 Australia Pakistan 1996 Sri Lanka Australia 1992 Pakistan England 1987 Australia England 1983 India West Indies 1979 West Indies Australia 1975 West Indies Australia ICC Team Rankings, Test Team Ratings, One Day, ODI Team Ranking, Twenty20 Cricket Rating ICC Test Championship As on : 20-Jun-2011         S# Team Matches Points Rating  1. India 42 5357 128 2. South Africa 36 4228 117 3. England 49 5701 116 4. Sri Lanka 31 3311 107 5. Australia 43 4583 107 6. Pakistan 32 2870 90 7. West Indies 28 2398 86 8. New Zealand 32 2582 78 9. Bangladesh 19 131 7 ICC ODI Championship As on : 16-Jun-2011   S# Team Matches Points Rating  1. Australia 51 6577 129 2. India 58 6890 119 3. Sri Lanka 42 4966 118 4. South Africa 37 4307 116 5. England 42 4430 105 6. Pakistan 46 4617 100 7. New Zealand 41 3842 94 8. West Indies 37 2805 76 9. Bangladesh 41 2745 67 10. Ireland 19 775 41 11. Zimbabwe 38 1380 36 12. Netherlands 12 117 10 13. Kenya 12 0 0 ICC T20 Championship As on : 25-Jun-2011   S# Team Rating 1. England 95 2. South Africa 92 3. Sri Lanka 92 4. India 91 5. Pakistan 88 6. Australia 87 7. West Indies 85 8. New Zealand 71 9. Bangladesh 36 10. Zimbabwe 29 11. Netherlands 2 12. Ireland 1  Test Batsmen: ICC Player Rankings Rank Name Country Rating 1 J.H. Kallis SA 883 2 S.R. Tendulkar IND 874 3 K.C. Sangakkara SL 838 4 I.J.L. Trott ENG 833 5 A.N. Cook ENG 821 6 V. Sehwag IND 782 7 T.T. Samaraweera SL 766 8 S. Chanderpaul WI 763 9 A.B. de Villiers SA 760 10 H.M. Amla SA 744 Test Bowlers: ICC Player Rankings Rank Name Country Rating 1 D.W. Steyn SA 899 2 G.P. Swann ENG 797 3 J.M. Anderson ENG 781 4 M. Morkel SA 751 5 Zaheer Khan IND 741 6 M.G. Johnson AUS 727 7 Harbhajan Singh IND 659 8 Shakib Al Hasan BAN 648 9 D.L. Vettori NZ 623  ODI Batsmen: ICC Player Rankings Rank Name Country Rating 1 H.M. Amla SA 867 2 A.B. de Villiers SA 804 3 T.M. Dilshan SL 761 4 S.R. Watson AUS 758 5 K.C. Sangakkara SL 753 6 M.E.K. Hussey AUS 748 7 V. Kohli IND 738 8 I.J.L. Trott ENG 737 9 M.S. Dhoni IND 711 10 M.J. Clarke AUS 706   ODI Bowlers: ICC Player Rankings Rank Name Country Rating 1 D.L. Vettori NZ 701 2 R.W. Price ZIM 678 3 Saeed Ajmal PAK 673 4 G.P. Swann ENG 667 5 D.W. Steyn SA 663 6 M. Morkel SA 661 7 M.G. Johnson AUS 654 8 L.L. Tsotsobe SA 652 9 B.A.W. Mendis SL 644 10 K.M.D.N. Kulasekara SL 642