The 1975 cricket World Cup took place from June 7 to June 21 and featured 15 matches, with each team playing 60 overs. The West Indies won the championship by defeating Australia in the final.
The first Men’s Cricket World Cup, officially called the Prudential Cup ’75, was a major event in the history of One Day Internationals (ODIs), which had only seen 18 matches before this. Hosted in England from June 7 to June 21, 1975, the tournament was organized by the International Cricket Conference (now known as the International Cricket Council, or ICC) and was sponsored by the Prudential Assurance Company.
Eight teams took part: the six main Test-playing nations at the time—Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and the West Indies—along with two notable Associate countries, Sri Lanka and East Africa. These teams were divided into two groups of four. Each team played the others in its group once, with the top two teams from each group moving on to the semi-finals. The winners of these matches then competed in the final.
ALSO READ: India entered the World Cup with only two ODIs played and it showed in their performance. Led by Srinivasa Raghavan Venkataraghavan, India won just one of their three matches. Their only victory came against East Africa, marking India’s first-ever win in a World Cup. A memorable moment from India’s campaign was Sunil Gavaskar’s slow innings against England, where he scored just 36 runs from 174 balls. India lost that match by 202 runs while chasing 335 runs, finishing with only 132-3. Despite the criticism, Gavaskar ended as India’s top run-scorer in the tournament with 113 runs, mostly thanks to his unbeaten 65 against East Africa. Seamer Abid Ali led the team in wickets with six. India’s last match in the tournament against New Zealand was also the final ODI of Ali’s career. READ MORE: 
