[3] The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), every four years, with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament.

[6] However, the first credited Test match was played in 1877 between Australia and England, and the two teams competed regularly for The Ashes in subsequent years.

Cricket was also included as an Olympic sport at the 1900 Paris Games, where Great Britain defeated France to win the gold medal.

The event was not a success: the summer was exceptionally wet, making play difficult on damp uncovered pitches, and crowd attendances were poor, attributed to a "surfeit of cricket".

[11] The number of nations playing Test cricket increased gradually over time, with the addition of West Indies in 1928,[12] New Zealand in 1930,[13] India in 1932,[14] and Pakistan in 1952.

[18] 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.

[23] The West Indies won a second consecutive World Cup tournament, defeating the hosts England by 92 runs in the final.

At a meeting which followed the World Cup, the International Cricket Conference agreed to make the competition a quadrennial event.

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.

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.

[29] Pakistan overcame a dismal start in the tournament to eventually defeat England by 22 runs in the final and emerge as winners.

[30] The 1996 championship 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.

[31] In the semi-final, Sri Lanka, heading towards a crushing victory over India at Eden Gardens after the hosts lost eight wickets while scoring 120 runs in pursuit of 252, were awarded victory by default after crowd unrest broke out in protest against the Indian performance.

[41] Following Pakistan's upset loss to World Cup debutants Ireland in the group stage, Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room.

[42] Jamaican police had initially launched a murder investigation into Woolmer's death but later confirmed that he died of heart failure.

[47] India won their second World Cup title by beating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, where the Indian captain M.S.

Dhoni along with the spinning all-rounder Yuvraj Singh chased 275 with notable performances from Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli, making India the first country to win the World Cup at home.

New Zealand beat South Africa in a thrilling first semi-final to qualify for their maiden World Cup final.

Australia defeated New Zealand by seven wickets in the final at Melbourne to lift the World Cup for the fifth time.

Afghanistan had their most successful World Cup, with four wins during the group stage, including over defending champions England; they also came close to defeating Australia before Glenn Maxwell's double century turned the match around.

[55] The World Cricket League was the qualification system provided to allow the Associate and Affiliate members of the ICC more opportunities to qualify.

All countries will participate in a series of leagues to determine qualification, with automatic promotion and relegation between divisions from one World Cup cycle to the next.

The top four teams from each group proceeded to the knock out stage consisting of quarter-finals, semi-finals and ultimately the final.

This shift to a permanent design was intended to establish a consistent and iconic representation of the World Cup's legacy.

[84] The most-watched match of the tournament was the group game between India and Pakistan, which was watched by more than 300 million people live.

The ICC decided that England should host the first tournament because it was ready to devote the resources required to organising the inaugural event.

[96] Many of the tournaments have been jointly hosted by nations from the same geographical region, such as South Asia in 1987, 1996 and 2011, Australasia (in Australia and New Zealand) in 1992 and 2015, Southern Africa in 2003 and West Indies in 2007.

[18] 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.

Other countries which have achieved or equalled their best World Cup results while co-hosting the tournament are Sri Lanka and New Zealand as finalists in 2011 and 2015 respectively, Zimbabwe who reached the Super Six in 2003, and Kenya as semi-finalists in 2003.

Legend The table below provides an overview of the performances of teams over past World Cups, as of the end of the 2023 tournament.