"Cricket" The First Love: The World at our feet.....The World Cup 2015

The ICC Cricket World Cup is the international tournament of One Day International (ODI) cricket. The event is organised by the cricket's governing body, The International Cricket Council (ICC), with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a final tournament held every four years. The tournament is one of the world's most viewed and liked sporting event.

This is blog is for the World Cup 2015 which will be played in the continent of Australia - New Zealand from 14th February to 29th March 2015 with the Indian Cricket team going into the tournament as the "Defending World Champions".

Below are some moments from the history of Cricket World cups which will be remembered always.

1975 World Cup Winning West Indies Cricket Team - 1st Ever World Cup
The first World Cup was organised in England in June 1975. Each of the first three World Cups in 1975, 1979 and 1983 were held in England. From the 1987 tournament onwards, hosting has been shared between different countries.

1979 World Cup Winning West Indies Cricket Team
For the 1979 Cricket World Cup, the ICC introduced a new regulation to select non-Test playing teams with Sri Lanka and Canada qualifying for the first time. However, the West Indies won a second consecutive World Cup tournament, defeating the hosts, England, by 92 runs in the final.

1983 World Cup Winning Indian Cricket Team
The 1983 World Cup was hosted by England for a third consecutive time. By this time, Sri Lanka had become a Test-playing nation, and also Zimbabwe qualified for the tournament. In this tournament teams faced each other twice, before moving into the knock-outs. India, an outsider, were crowned champions after upsetting the West Indies by 43 runs in the final.

1987 World Cup Winning Australian Cricket Team
India and Pakistan jointly hosted the 1987 World Cup, the first time that the competition was held outside England. The games were reduced from 60 to 50 overs per innings, the current standard, because of the shorter daylight hours in the Indian subcontinent compared with England's summer. Australia won the championship by defeating England by 7 runs in the final, the closest margin in World Cup final history.

1992 World Cup Winning Pakistan Cricket Team
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. The South African cricket team participated in the event for the first time. Pakistan overcame a dismal start in the tournament to eventually defeat England by 22 runs in the final and emerge as champions.

1996 World Cup Winning Sri Lanka Cricket Team
The 1996 World Cup was held in the Indian subcontinent for a second time, with the inclusion of Sri Lanka as host for some of its group stage matches. Sri Lanka went on to win their first World Cup by defeating Australia by seven wickets in the final.

1999 World Cup Winning Australian Cricket Team
In 1999, the tournament was hosted by England again, with some matches also being held in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Netherlands. Kenya, Bangladesh and Scotland qualified for the first time for the World Cup. In the final, Australia dismissed Pakistan for 132 and reached the target in less than 20 overs and with eight wickets in hand.

2003 World Cup Winning Australian Cricket Team
The event now moved the to the African soil with South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya host in the 2003 World Cup. The number of teams participating in the event increased from twelve to fourteen. Kenya's victories over Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, among others – and a forfeit by the New Zealand team, which refused to play in Kenya because of security concerns enabled Kenya to reach the semi-finals. In the final, Australia made 359 runs for the loss of two wickets, the largest ever total in a final, defeating India by 125 runs. Sachin Tendulkar was named the Player of the Tournament for his 673 runs in the series.

2007 World Cup Winning Australian Cricket Team
In 2007 the tournament was hosted by the West Indies and expanded further to sixteen teams. Following Pakistan's upset loss to World Cup debutants Ireland and Indians losing to Bangladesh in the group stage. Australia defeated Sri Lanka in the final by 53 runs (D/L) in bad light conditions, and extended their world cup undefeated run to 29 matches and winning three consecutive World Cups.

2011 World Cup Winning Indian Cricket Team
The 2011 Cricket World Cup was jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The number of teams participating in the World Cup dropped down from sixteen to fourteen. India won their second World Cup title by beating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final in Mumbai, and became the first country to win the final on home soil. India's Yuvraj Singh was named man of the tournament and dedicated the world cup to the God of Cricket "Sachin Tendulkar".

SOME MOMENTS FROM WORLD CUP HISTORY