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Cricket World Cup Winners Since 1975
The ICC Cricket world cup is an international cricket competition established in the year 1975. The sport’s global governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC) conducts this competition for its member countries. This tournament takes place every four years. The current trophy was instituted in 1999 and remains with the ICC, while a replica is awarded to the winning team. There have been 12 Cricket World Cup winners since 1975, so we decided to make a list of all World Cup winners for you.
As of 2019, for the upcoming world cups, seven highest-ranked nations along with the host nation automatically qualifies for the world cup. The remaining nations including associate and affiliate ICC member nations play in a qualification tournament called a World cup Qualifier. Although no associate team has reached the final yet, Kenya did qualify to play in the semi-finals of the 2003 world cup. The most successful team to play in the world cup is Australia becoming winners of the cricket World Cup 5 times and finishing as runners up twice. Australia also holds the record of winning three world cup finals in a row in 1999, 2003, 2007. West Indies won the first two editions of the tournament in 1975 and 1979. Australia is also the only team to play the most number of finals (seven from twelve: 1975, 1987,1996,1999,2003,2007,2015).
Let us dive back into history and revise which team won the respective world cups since 1975:
West Indies (1975)
The final of the inaugural ICC cricket World Cup was held on 21st June 1975 at lord’s, played between the West Indies and Australia. West Indies won the final by 17 runs. West Indian captain Clive Lloyd smashed a hundred and helped to build a partnership of 149 runs with Rohan Kanhai and with some tremendous fielding efforts, the West Indians paved their way to the first-ever world cup win.
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West Indies (1979)
In the second world cup, West Indies again made it to the final, this time against England. Viv Richards started the party with an unbeaten 138 and built a formidable partnership of 139 runs with his partner Collis King, then when England came to bat, Joel Garner, demolished their lineup by taking 5 wickets in 11 balls. West Indies beat England 92 runs to take away their second consecutive title.
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India (1983)
For the third time in a row, West Indies reached the final, this time against India. India went in to bat first and could manage 183 runs before all their wickets fell down. To everyone’s surprise, India bowled exceptionally well, leaving the West Indian team all out for 140 and took away the world cup from them
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Australia (1987)
India and Pakistan co-hosted the 1987 world cup. Australia and England played the final where Australia went in to bat first and scored 253 for the loss of 5 wickets at the close of play. England fell short of 7 runs and lost the final to Australia. Australia picked up their first World cup.
Pakistan (1992)
This time the competition was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. England and Pakistan met at the final in what was the first-ever day/night final held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. A 139-run partnership between Imran khan and Javed Miandad added to their cause, Pakistan posted a total of 249 on the board. England was bowled out for 227 after a 3-wicket haul from Wasim Akram proved fatal for the English Team. Akram was also adjudged Man of the Match.
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Sri Lanka (1996)
This was Sri Lanka’s first appearance in a world cup final, while they were also co-hosting the tournament with India and Pakistan. Australia went in to bat first and could only manage 241 runs in their 50 overs. Aravinda de Silva scored a hundred and led his team to a dream victory. He was awarded the ‘Man of the Match’ for his performance.
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Australia (1999)
Hosted for the fourth time by England, in a one-sided final where Shane Warne took 4 wickets to bowl out Pakistan for just 132 runs with 11 overs to go. Some good batting performances from the Australians sealed an easy victory for them.
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Australia (2003)
This time the World cup was co-hosted by South Africa, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. In a day-night final played between Australia and India, Australia batted out their 50 overs to finish with the highest score in a world cup final by scoring 359/2. In reply, India bundled out for just 234 runs with eleven overs still remaining handing Australia an easy victory.
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Australia (2007)
This world cup was hosted by the West Indies and the final was played between Australia and Sri Lanka at Kensington Oval in Barbados. A two-hour rain delayed the match which was then reduced to 38 overs aside. Australia came in to bat first and finished with 281 on the board. Despite a revised target, due to a further rain break, calculated using the Duckworth–Lewis method, Sri Lanka scored 215–8 from the overs allotted to them. Australia won their third consecutive World Cup with a 53-run victory.
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India (2011)
Sri Lanka, India, and Bangladesh co-hosted this tournament. India and Sri Lanka finished as finalists and battled it out at the Wankhede. Sri Lanka finished their innings with 274 runs on the board, including a century from Mahela Jayawardene. A steady 97 from Gautam Gambhir and an unbeaten 91 from MS Dhoni saw India home with a historic win after 28 years. India became the first-ever team to win the World cup at home.
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Australia (2015)
This time Australia won their fifth title, playing against New Zealand at the MCG Melbourne, Australia. Mitchell Starc took out Brendon McCullum for a duck and Mitchell Johnson took a three-wicket haul to restrict New Zealand for a mere 183 in 45 overs. Australia chased down the target in 33.1 overs to take the title home
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England (2019)
This World Cup tournament was hosted by England and Wales. The Home team England made it to the final and won a nail-biting thriller against New Zealand to win their first-ever title. The match went into a super-over, after both the teams finished with 241 runs at the end of their respective innings. In the super- overs both the teams tied again at 15 runs, but England won the match by superior boundary count, they hit 9 more boundaries than New Zealand in their innings. This was the first-ever world cup final to end in a tie and moved to a super-over match.
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The 2023 World cup is scheduled to be hosted by India. The upcoming tournament will be the 13th competition and India will be hosting it for the fourth time.
