The ICC World Cup was first played in 1975 and there have been six nations who have won the prestigious tournament.
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The ICC Cricket World Cup has been a marquee tournament that has given fans excitement. Ever since it began in 1975, the tournament has only grown in stature. In 2019, the final between England and New Zealand in Lord’s ended in a dramatic tie. In all, only six nations have managed to win the World Cup. West Indies won the first two editions in 1975 and 1979. India won in 1983 while Australia managed to win it in 1987. Pakistan won in 1992 while Sri Lanka upset all the odds and won in 1996. Australia then had a period of domination from 1999 to 2007, winning a hat-trick of titles. India ended their 28-year wait with a win in 2011 while Australia won their fifth title in 2015. England finally won the World Cup after 44 years after losing in the final in 1979, 1987 and 1992.
For India, it has been a roller-coaster journey. In 1975, Sunil Gavaskar stunned the cricketing world when he hit 36 off 180 balls which confounded fans. From 1975 to 1979, India won only one match in the World Cup. In 1979, they lost to Sri Lanka, at that time an Associate nation. Kapil Dev’s India finally arrived on the world stage in 1983 by beating the mighty West Indies twice. They got the better of England and Australia to win the title for the first time.
India’s chances of glory at home were thwarted when they lost to England in the semi-final in 1987. With retro jerseys in Australia and New Zealand, India crashed out in the league stages in 1992. India managed to reach the semi-final in 1996. However, rowdy crowd behavior in Kolkata forced the match to be handed to Sri Lanka. Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly shared a record 318-run stand in 1999 but they failed to reach the final. India had a glorious run in South Africa in 2003 but they lost to Australia.
In 2007, India suffered humiliation as they were knocked out in the league stages. During the 2011 edition, they beat Sri Lanka in Mumbai in the final to end a 28-year wait. India had a great run in 2015 but in the semi-final, they were dumped out by Australia. In 2019, India was favorites to reach the final but they came across a determined New Zealand team.
1975 World Cup squad: Srinivas Venkataraghavan (captain), Syed Abid Ali, Mohinder Amarnath, Bishen Singh Bedi, Farokh Engineer, Anshuman Gaekwad, Sunil Gavaskar, Karsan Ghavri, Madan Lal, Brijesh Patel, Eknath Solkar, Gundappa Viswanath, Syed Kirmani, Parthasarthy Sharma
1979 World Cup squad: Srinivas Venkataraghavan (captain), Mohinder Amarnath, Bishen Singh Bedi, Anshuman Gaekwad, Sunil Gavaskar, Karsan Ghavri, Kapil Dev, Surinder Khana, Brijest Patel, Dilip Vengsarkar, Gundappa Viswanath, Bharath Reddy, Yashpal Sharma, Yajurvendra Singh
1983 World Cup squad: Kapil Dev (captain), Mohinder Amarnath, Kirti Azad, Roger Binny, Sunil Gavaskar, Syed Kirmani, Madan Lal, Sandeep Patil, Balwinder Sandhu, Yashpal Sharma, Ravi Shastri, K Srikkanth, Sunil Valson, Dilip Vengsarkar
1987 World Cup squad: Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin, Roger Binny, Sunil Gavaskar, Maninder Singh, Kiran More, Chandrakant Pandit, Manoj Prabhakar, Chetan Sharma, Ravi Shastri, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, K Srikkanth, Dilip Vengsarkar
1992 World Cup squad: Mohammad Azharuddin (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Ajay Jadeja, Vinod Kambli, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar, Kiran More, Manoj Prabhakar, Venkatapathy Raju, K Srikkanth, Javagal Srinath, Pravin Amre
1996 World Cup squad: Mohammad Azharuddin (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Aashish Kapoor, Anil Kumble, Sanjay Manjrekar, Nayan Mongia, Manoj Prabhakar, Venkatapathy Rahu, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Javagal Srinath, Ajay Jadeja, Salil Ankola, Venkatapathy Raju
1999 World Cup squad: Mohammad Azharuddin (captain), Sourav Ganguly, Ajay Jadeja, S Ramesh, Rahul Dravid, Robin Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Nayan Mongia, Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatesh Prasad, Nikhil Chopra, Debasis Mohanty, Javagal Srinath, Amay Khurasiya
2003 World Cup squad: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Sanjay Bangar, Ajit Agarkar, Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Kaif, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Dinesh Mongia, Ashish Nehra, Parthiv Patel, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Javagal Srinath, Sachin Tendulkar
2007 World Cup squad: Rahul Dravid (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Ajit Agarkar, MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Sreesanth, Sachin Tendulkar, Robin Uthappa.
2011 World Cup squad: MS Dhoni (captain and wicketkeeper), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin.
2015 World Cup squad: MS Dhoni (captain and wicketkeeper), Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Stuart Binny, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Axar Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav.
2019 World Cup squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami.
