Since its inception in 1975, the Cricket World Cup has been the grandest stage of the gentlemen’s game, the ultimate prize of a cricketer’s journey. This spectacle is scheduled to get underway in Australia and New Zealand commencing 14th February 2015 with the final to be held at the monumental MCG in Australia.
The fiesta down under will be on course to break quite a few records while the stage is set for an extremely memorable World Cup.
Throughout its course of 40 years, 28 sovereign states have fielded their players for the World Cup at least once. Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia), India, Ireland, Namibia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, UK (England, Scotland, Bermuda),West Indies (10 nations), Zimbabwe, UAE have been represented at least once..
Six teams have had the rare opportunity of appearing in a final but only 5 countries have reached the pinnacle. Australia leads with four titles while India and the West Indies carry two titles each. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have a championship each. England have appeared in three finals are yet to taste victory. New Zealand have been knocked out from the semi-finals a record 6 times.
England have hosted the WC four times (1977, 1979, 1983 & 1999) and is the only nation to host it alone (1975, 1979 & 1983). Sri Lanka (1996) and India (2011) are the only host nations to win the tournament while India is the only team to win a final on home soil (2011). All four titles by Australians were away wins.
Team Records
Australia, England, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and West Indies have played in all ten tournaments while Zimbabwe and South Africa have appeared in 8 and 6 editions respectively. The Kenyans have taken part in 5 tournaments, most by an Associate Team. Australians have played a record number of 76 matches, winning 55 at a percentage of 72%. They also carried an unbeaten streak of 34 games from 1999 to 2011. New Zealand is behind them, winning 40 while Zimbabwe have suffered the most defeats (37) including 18 consecutive matches. Bermuda, East Africa, Scotland and Namibia are the only 4 sides that have played in the World Cup but have never won a match. There had been 9 occasions where Associate Teams had caused ‘upsets’ over test nations with the first being Sri Lanka’s victory over India in 1979.
The highest team total in a match was made by India against Bermuda in 2007 (413 for 5). In the same game, India sealed a record winning margin of 257 runs. Canada was bowled out for 36 by Sri Lanka in 2003, the lowest total in World Cup history. Two games were solved by the closest margin and both involved Australia and India. During the 1987 and 1992 tournaments, these games between them recorded the lowest winning margin of 1 run. Australians emerged victorious in both occasions.
The encounter between India and England in 2011 recorded the highest match aggregate while Ireland recorded the highest run chase when they successfully chased down 329/7 against England in 2011. The Scottish bowlers conceded 59 extras against Pakistan in 1999 which is the highest by any team in a World Cup game.
Batting Records
The former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has played the most number of World Cup matches (46) while Javed Miandad (1975-1996) and Sachin Tendulkar (1992-2011) are the only players to have appeared in six tournaments. Tendulkar has scored 2278 runs in the World Cup at an average of 56.95. Gary Kirsten’s unbeaten 188 against UAE in 1996 is the highest score by a batsman in all World Cup innings. The 673 runs by Tendulkar in 2003 remain as the most runs posted by a batsman in a single tournament.
South African Lance Klusener has the highest average (124) in the World Cup while his impressive strike rate of 121.17 remains the best in the tournament. However, considering the minimum of 20 World Cup innings,Vivian Richards’ 63.31 remains the highest average while Kapil Dev’s strike rate of 115.4 stands out. Nathan Astle and Ijaz Ahmed have recorded most ducks (5).
Out of the 127 centuries recorded in the tournament history, Tendulkar carries 6, followed by Ponting with 5. The Indian legend also has 15 half centuries under his name. Mark Waugh (1996), Sourav Ganguly (2003) and Matthew Hayden (2007) are the only players to have scored 3 centuries in the same tournament. Kevin O’Brien’s blistering century off 50 balls against England in 2011 is the fastest while Brendon McCullum’s half ton in 20 balls against Canada in 2007 remains as the fastest half century. Ponting has recorded most sixes (31) in World Cup history while his teammate Hayden dispatched 18 sixes in 2007, the most in a tournament. The highest partnership in the World Cup came between Rahul Dravid and Ganguly in 1999 against Sri Lanka at Taunton (318 runs).
Bowling Records
Glenn McGrath’s 71 scalps lead the bowlers’ list with spin wizard Muralitharan behind him. The staggering 18.19 average of McGrath too is the best career World Cup average by a bowler, considering the minimum of 1000 balls bowled. West Indian paceman Andy Roberts holds the best economy rate (3.24) while Zaheer Khan has recorded the best strike rate (27.1). McGrath’s 7 for 15 against Namibia in 2003 is the best bowling performance in an inning. During the 2007 World Cup, McGrath captured 26 wickets, the most in a single tournament. So far, only 5 bowlers have secured hat-tricks in the World Cup. In 1987 against New Zealand, Chetan Sharma took the first World Cup hat-trick by dismissing Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield. He was followed by Saqlain Mushtaq (1999), Chaminda Vaas (2003), Brett Lee (2003, Lasith Malinga (2007, 2011) and Kemar Roach (2011). Malinga is the only bowler to take two World Cup hat-tricks and the only bowler to take 4 wickets in 4 consecutive balls, a feat he achieved against South Africa in 2007. Vass’s hat-trick against Bangladesh in 2003 was off the opening deliveries of the match, in fact the only instance in the history of ODIs.
Fielding/Wicket-keeping Records
Adam Gilchrist, perhaps the best wicketkeeper batsman ever to play in the World Cup, leads the table with 52 dismissals (47 catches, 7 stumpings). Gilchrist has the highest number of dismissals in an inning when he took 6 against Namibia in 2003. In the same tournament, he went on to record 21 dismissals. Kumar Sangakkara has the most number of stumpings by a wicketkeeper (10). Ricky Ponting has taken 28 catches, most by an outfield player, 11 of which he secured during the 2003 edition. Mohammad Kaif took 4 catches against Sri Lanka in 2003, the highest number by an outfielder in a single game.
Miscellaneous
Headingley at Leeds has hosted the most number of World Cup matches (12) while the Lord’s stadium in London has hosted four finals. Lord’s will also remain as the only venue to have hosted more than one World Cup final until MCG will host the final in 2015. Harrup Park (formerly known as Ray Mitchell Oval), carries the record of hosting the shortest ODI game in history (considering an ODI with at least one ball was bowled). During the 1992 WC, it hosted the game between Sri Lanka and India but the match was abandoned immediately following rain after the first two balls. Fast bowler Champaka Ramanayake holds the unique distinction of becoming the only bowler to have bowled in a single venue as the ground did not host an ODI again. Umpire David Shepherd has officiated 46 World Cup games while Steve Bucknor appeared in 5 World Cup finals (1992-2007).
There are four cricketers who have represented two countries in the World Cup. Kepler Wessels played for Australia during the 1983 tournament before becoming the South African captain in their debut appearance in 1992. Anderson Cummins played for West Indies in 1992 and represented Canada in 2007. After representing England in 2007, Ed Joyce played for Ireland in 2011. Eoin Morgan on the other hand played for Ireland in 2007 before playing for England in 2011.
Apart from the 14-man squad for Sri Lanka in 1996, there were four other players with Sri Lankan descent who appeared in the 1996 edition. Ganesh Mylvaganam and Johanne Samarasekera represented the UAE while Flavian Aponso, who was banned after the 1982-83 rebel tour to South Africa, played for Netherlands. Michael Bevan, although not born in Sri Lanka, had roots to the Burgher community in the island.
The inaugural World Cup in 1975 featured just two teenagers, Javed Miandad (17) and Anura Ranasinghe (18). The youngest player to appear in the World Cup is Canadian batsman Nitish Kumar who made his debut against Zimbabwe in 2011 at the age of 16 years and 283 days. In 1996, at 47 years and 257 days, Nolan Clarke of Netherlands became the oldest to play in a World Cup.
Clive Lloyd (1975, 1979) and Ricky Ponting (2003, 2007) carry two titles as captains while Ponting has the highest winning percentage as a skipper with a 92% winning rate. Ponting’s 29 matches as captain is also the highest number of World Cup matches as a captain. Gilchrist is the only player to win all three World Cups he has played in while McGrath and Ponting are the other two players who have 3 titles in their careers. Australia’s Geoff Marsh is the only person to win the World Cup both as a player and a coach. In 1987, he was a part of the winning team before guiding the Australian outfit to success in 1999.
The 1996 semi-final between India and Sri Lanka holds the record for the highest attendance at a World Cup game where an estimated 120,000 spectators gathered at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta. The 1992 final between England and Pakistan at the MCG is the highest attended final with a crowd of 87,812.
Having already produced mouthwatering encounters, the 2015 showdown should certainly eclipse the existing records, creating new ones.
