My Book “ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP - Facts, Trivia & Records Book’

 

(Kindle version available on amazon.com. Paperback is available at amazon.com, www.createspace.com and www.pothi.com )

SYNOPSIS

ICC Cricket World Cup is one of the top three sport carnivals in the World. First edition of the tournament took place in 1975 in England. Starting from England, tournament travelled to Indian sub-continent and then to southern hemisphere in Australia & New Zealand, Africa and then to Caribbean as well. The tournament has thus been hosted in every part of the globe. So far there have been ten editions of this tournament and eleventh is slated for early next year in Australia and New Zealand. 

Tournament has evolved since its inception in 1975. It started off with players wearing traditional white cloths and matches with 60 over's for each side. There were four teams in each of the two groups. During 1975 and 1979, each team played other team in the group only once. However in 1983 World Cup, team in same group played each other twice. After first three tournaments in England, tournament moved out to Indian sub-continent in 1987 and innings size was also reduced to 50 over's. 

1992 was a defining moment for the cup as first time colored clothing, white ball and day-night matches were introduced. South Africa also played first time during 1992 edition after South Africa came out of international boycott, once miserable era of apartheid was over. In 1999, 2003 and 2007, there were three stages in the tournament with group stage, super six/eight and then knockout. In 1996 & 2011, there were only two stages but knock out match started from quarter-final (group of eight) thus winner had to play and win three knock-out matches. 

During this journey of four decades, the tournament has come across numerous amazing records, created by hundreds of players and teams, who participated in various editions of Cricket World Cup. Greatest cricketers of all time like, Clive Llyod, Viv Richards, Kapil Dev, Allan Border, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Wasim Akram, Shane Warne and many more allured the tournament with their electrifying performances in the field. 

This Book provides snapshot of all the editions of the tournament clubbed with numerous facts & records. It is not a mere record book; it gives reader a deep insight in history of Cup with extremely interesting trivia, which would definitely leave Cricket lovers enthralled. 

 

EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK

Snapshot of 1^st ICC Cricket World Cup played in 1975

Host Country	:	England
Tournament Period	:	7-21 June 1975
Teams	:	Total eight teams. Following were six Test teams :- India Pakistan Australia New Zealand England West Indies Following were two non-Test playing teams :- Sri Lanka East Africa
Format	:	Two groups of four teams each. Teams in a group played each other once at group stage. Top two teams of the group qualified for the knockout stage (Semi Finals). The matches had 60 over's each innings. Tournament was played during day time with red ball and traditional white clothing.
Total number of matches	:	Total 15 matches. 12 at group stage and 3 knock-outs including final
Final Match	:	Played on 21st June 1975 at Lord’s
Finalist Teams	:	Australia and West Indies
Winner	:	West Indies
Man of Match (Final)	:	Clive Llyod (West Indies)
Losing Semi Finalists	:	New Zealand & England
Brief Score of Final	:	West Indies batted first and scored 291 runs. Australia got all out for 274 runs in 59th over. West Indies won by 17 runs.
Highest Run Scorer	:	Glen Turner - 333 runs
Highest Wicket taker	:	Gary Gilmour – 11 wickets

 

Trivia

 

1)   Kepler Wessels played in World Cup representing two different countries. In 1983, he represented Australia and he was captain of South Africa in 1992 World Cup. Apart from Wessels, Anderson Cummins,  Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan have also represented two countries in World Cup.

 

2)  AB de Villiers, the swashbuckling batsman from South Africa has a unique and dubious record against his name. He is only player from a Test playing nation to have four ducks in a single tournament (2007 World Cup).

 

3)  India and Sri Lanka played each other in 2011 World Cup final. It happened first time since 1992 World Cup that Australia was missing from the final. During all the World Cups during this millennium, either or both of India or Sri Lanka have reached to the final.

 

4)  India’s explosive batsman Virender Sehwag achieved a unique feet in 2011 World Cup. India played their first five matches (all were group matches) against Bangladesh, England, Ireland, Netherlands & South Africa. Virender Sehwag struck the very first ball of India’s innings in all of these five matches for a four. Sehwag did not play in last group match of India against West Indies. He however played his next match against Australia, which was quarterfinal match. Lee bowled first ball of India’s innings to Sehwag. This time around however, Sehwag played it defensively and 1^st ball boundary spree finally came to an end.

 

5)  Outstanding batsman from Pakistan, Mohammad Yusuf has a unique record under his name in World Cup and that too as a bowler. Yusuf as bowler has 100% success rate ie wicket on every ball bowled. Yusuf bowled only one ball in World Cup. He bowled it in a match against Zimbabwe in 2007 World Cup and claimed wicket of Christopher Mpofu.

 

6)  Renowned umpire Simon Taufel made his international umpiring debut in 1999. He has been best in the business over the past one decade. However he could not officiate in a World Cup final till 2011 as in 1999, 2003 & 2007 World Cup finals, his country Australia was one of the finalists. Finally his long time desire was fulfilled in 2011 World Cup as Australia crashed out in the quarter final and Taufel officiated in the final match played between India and Sri Lanka.

 

7)  Unarguably, India has been the most unexpected winner till date in the history of World Cup Cricket. In 1983, India went in to the tournament as underdog. Their chance stood nowhere in front of West Indies, Australia, England and Pakistan. At the start of tournament, as per bookies odds for Indian victory were 66-1. India however staged one of the biggest upset ever and lifted the cup.

 

8)  Australian Mark Waugh scored three centuries in 1996 World Cup. He was first to score three centuries in a single edition of the World Cup.

 

 

 

The book has more than 220 such trivia and complete snapshot of all the ten editions of World Cup. Kindle version available at amazon.in/amazon.com. Paperback is available at pothi.com and at amozon.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by PANKAJ AGRAWAL 

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