ICC CRICKET TOURNAMENTS AND ITS HISTORY

CRICKET is the second most popular game played across the globe after soccer . This sport is national game to only some of the countries , one of them being AUSTRALIA. Cricket was invented in ENGLAND way back in 16th century but lately it has been able to attract more support and people from the ASIAN or AFRICAN countries and AUSTRALIA of course. Since, the sport has grown over the years with more and more teams playing it on the international level, it becomes more competitive and interesting as it gathers more and more attention of the crowd.

BILATERAL SERIES:
To test the abilities of different competing teams and to make the sport bit more fascinating , cricket boards of various countries managing their respective teams tend to organize bilateral series between various teams on international level by seeking the support of ICC (international cricket council ), which is a cricket governing body on the international level .These bilateral series are organised in either of the competing teams taking part in the series. FOR INSTANCE: a Bilateral series between INDIA and ENGLAND would take place either in INDIA or in ENGLAND. Hosting nation always gets the favor of their home conditions as they know them in a better as compared to the visiting side.

ICC TOURNAMENTS:

Bilateral series are often not regarded as the best way to test a team's potential and abilities, however to do so ICC conducts various tournaments which feature some top teams of the world. Basically, there are three types of ICC tournaments , they are ICC WORLD CUP, ICC T-20 WORLD CUP ,ICC CHAMPIONS TROPHY ,ICC UNDER-19 WORLD CUP, ICC WOMEN'S WORLD CUP, ICC WOMEN'S WORLD T-20. Each time we see a certain type of alteration in the way these tournaments are organized , be it the change in no. of playing teams or the type of format which makes the game more interesting for the viewers to watch. There is always a different sort of intensity and pressure under which teams play in such type of tournaments where everybody's aim is to win the trophy for their side.There is always a host nation where matches of the tournament takes place.World cups are played every time after a gap of 4 years , whereas

FLASHBACK:
The first world cup was played in 1975 .At that time world cup was called by the name of prudential cup till the next three world cups i.e till 1983. The first edition took place in ENGLAND as it was the only nation which could stage such a big event on world stage. WEST INDIES emerged as the winners of first two prudential cups of 1975 and 1979 under the captaincy of CLIVE LLOYD. It was for the first time in 1983 when INDIA broke their winning streak by defeating a solid looking WEST INDIES side in the final at the MECCA of cricket at LORD'S CRICKET GROUND IN LONDON,ENGLAND by 45 runs under the captaincy of young KAPIL DEV . Given below is the list of hosting nations and the winners of the respective world cups

1975 World Cup in England - West Indies beat Australia
1979 World Cup in England - West Indies beat England
1983 World Cup in England - India beat West Indies
1987 World Cup in India and Pakistan - Australia beat England
1992 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand - Pakistan beat England
1996 World Cup in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka beat Australia
1999 World Cup in England - Australia beat Pakistan
2003 World Cup in South Africa - Australia beat India
2007 World Cup in the Caribbean - Australia beat Sri Lanka
2011 World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - India beat Sri Lanka
2015 World Cup in Australia, New Zealand- Australia beat New Zealand
2019 World Cup To Be Played in England and Wales

If we see at the list above it is pretty evident that AUSTRALIANS have always dominated the world cricket as far as the world cups are concerned at least in the post 2000 era by winning 3 consecutive titles in 1999, 2003 and 2007.They were led by RICKY PONTING in two of the three titles that they had won.There wasn't any question raised on the team's ability as they won matches in all parts of the world and were a supreme power in cricket in post 1999s till 2007.

RECENT STORIES:
Things seem to have changed as the competitiveness among the teams increases and the world is no more ruled by any single team .Each team possesses certain good players who have the ability to turn things around themselves. So has been the case with teams like INDIA , SOUTH AFRICA ,SRI LANKA , NEW ZEALAND giving tough fight to AUSTRALIA in the recent past . This was evident from the fact that AUSTRALIA failed to reach the semi-finals of the 2011 world cup after a long gap of 15 years being defeated by INDIA in the quarter final.Eventually INDIA won the trophy defeating SRI LANKA in the finals in MUMBAI,INDIA.

ICC WORLD CUP 2015:

The world cup of 2015 was jointly hosted by AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND. INDIA went into this world cup being the defending champions and wanted to retain the cup but their winning streak this time was stopped by the old rivals AUSTRALIA in the semi final at MELBOURNE,AUSTRALIA. AUSSIES eventually went on to win the world cup defeating NEW ZEALAND in the finals.

ICC RANKINGS:

There are some criteria or points on the basis of which a performance of a team or a player is evaluated and given points accordingly and thus are ranked on ICC rankings .There are rankings for team,batsmen,bowler and a all-rounder in all the three formats (test,odi and t-20)of the game separately.

UPCOMING ICC TOURNAMENT:
IN 2017, ENGLAND AND WALES is hosting another edition of ICC CHAMPIONS TROPHY beginning from JUNE 1 2017. Previous edition of champions trophy was also held at the same place as this time and INDIA are the defending champions as they defeated the host nations ENGLAND in the finals by a mere margin of 5 runs to be crowned champions . This team was led by INDIA's most successful captain of all time MS DHONI.

Eight teams that would be featuring in this competition are :
INDIA AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND SOUTH AFRICA PAKISTAN BANGLADESH WEST INDIES ENGLAND