History of Cricket World Cup

Before the first Cricket World Cup :

              The first ever international cricket match was played between Canada and the United States, on the 24 and 25 September 1844. 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. South Africa was admitted to Test status in 1889. Representative cricket teams were selected to tour each other, resulting in bilateral competition. Cricket was also included as an Olympic sport at the 1900 Paris Games, where Great Britain defeated France to win the gold medal. This was the only appearance of cricket at the Summer Olympics.

The first multilateral competition at international level was the 1912 Triangular Tournament, a Test cricket tournament played in England between all three Test-playing nations at the time: England, Australia and South Africa. The event was not a success: the summer was exceptionally wet, making play difficult on damp uncovered pitches, and attendances were poor, attributed to a "surfeit of cricket". In subsequent years, international Test cricket has generally been organised as bilateral series: a multilateral Test tournament was not organised again until the quadrangular Asian Test Championship in 1999.

The number of nations playing Test cricket increased gradually over the years, with the addition of West Indies in 1928, New Zealand in 1930, India in 1932, and Pakistan in 1952, but international cricket continued to be played as bilateral Test matches over three, four or five days.

In the early 1960s, English county cricket teams began playing a shortened version of cricket which only lasted for one day. Starting in 1962 with a four-team knockout competition known as the Midlands Knock-Out Cup, and continuing with the inaugural Gillette Cup in 1963, one-day cricket grew in popularity in England. A national Sunday League was formed in 1969. The first One-Day International event was played on the fifth day of a rain-aborted Test match between England and Australia at Melbourne in 1971, to fill the time available and as compensation for the frustrated crowd. It was a forty over match with eight balls per over.

The success and popularity of the domestic one-day competitions in England and other parts of the world, as well as the early One-Day Internationals, prompted the ICC to consider organising a Cricket World Cup

Sachin's 100th ton will come in ODIs: Ganguly

London: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has backed Sachin Tendulkar to complete his elusive hundredth international hundred in the forthcoming five-match ODI series against England.

Tendulkar was dismissed lbw by Tim Bresnan for 91 on the final day of the fourth Test on Monday.

Sachin Tendulkar needs just one century to reach 100 international hundreds

"His dismissal proved that cricket is a one-ball game. It doesn't matter how much you have your eye in, one good ball can get you out," Ganguly told MiD DAY after England completed a 4-0 whitewash of India here at The Oval.

"I know the entire nation is disappointed. A century from his blade would have at least given some respite to them since it has been a forgettable tour."

Ganguly expressed confidence that Tendulkar will score heavily in the ODIs.

"I am pretty confident that his hundred will come in the one-dayers. Let's not foget Tendulkar is only human after all. He has reached 99 hundreds, so obviously he will get to the 100 mark. I cannot stop being proud of him," said Ganguly, a close friend of the Little Master.

Ganguly got nostalgic while recalling his first meeting with Tendulkar.

"When I went to England for the first time with Kailash Gattani's Star Cricket Club as a teenager, Sachin was part of that team too. I observed him and had no doubts that he would blossom into a great player. It's been an incredible journey," said Ganguly, before defending Tendulkar's performance in the four Tests (273 runs from 8 innings).

"In fact, he has not had a bad Test series in England. He started batting well at Lord's itself. It's just one of those series when things don't click," said Dada, admitting he was fortunate to have seen Tendulkar's greatest efforts first hand.

"According to me, his best knocks have been Perth (1991-92), Cape Town (1996-97), Chennai (1998-99 and 2008-09) and Headingley (2002). I was fortunate to witness them from close quarters. He still has some great knocks left in him," concluded Ganguly.

ICC World Cup 2011 Points Table as on 06 March 2011

Here are the points table with the Net Run rate and the number of matches each team has played so far in the ICC World Cup 2011.

In 2011 World Cup there will be total 14 numbers of team will participate. Fourteen teams are divided into two Groups consisting of seven teams on each group. Each team will play with each other at the Group Stage and top four teams from each Group will qualify to play the knockout Quarter Finals.

The winner of Quarterfinal will then advance to play Semi Finals and then the Final in Mumbai on 2^nd of April 2011.

India is placed with England, South Africa, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands in Group B while Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya are placed in Group A.

Points Table at Group Stage

Groups for the 2011 World Cup

Group A - Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Canada.

Group B - India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands.

Group A

Teams	P	W	L	NR	T	Points	NRR
Pakistan	3	3	0	0	0	6	+1.75
Sri Lanka	4	2	1	1	0	5	+2.66
Australia	3	2	0	1	0	5	+1.81
New Zealand	3	2	1	0	0	4	+1.58
Zimbabwe	3	1	2	0	0	2	+0.08
Canada	3	0	3	0	0	0	-2.87
Kenya	3	0	3	0	0	0	-4.83

Group B

Teams	P	W	L	NR	T	Points	NRR
South Africa	2	2	0	0	0	4	+2.76
West Indies	3	2	1	0	0	4	+2.67
India	2	1	0	0	1	3	+0.87
England	3	1	1	0	1	3	+0.04
Ireland	2	1	1	0	0	2	-0.21
Bangladesh	3	1	2	0	0	2	-1.76
Netherlands	3	0	3	0	0	0	-3.06