History of the ICC Cricket World Cup a composite team from East Africa. One notable omission was the South African cricket team who were not competing due to the international sports boycott. West Indies won the first Cricket World Cup by defeating Australia by 17 runs in the final. The next two World Cups held in 1979 and 1983 were again hosted by England. The 1979 Cricket World Cup saw the introduction of the ICC Trophy, a competition used to select non-Test playing teams for the World Cup. Sri Lanka and Canada qualified through the ICC Trophy in 1979. West Indies again won the World Cup tournament,
2007 Cricket World Cup ODI teams took part in the World Cricket League, which Kenya won, and were also involved in other series prior to the World Cup. The rankings of the teams at the beginning of the Cricket World Cup were: "Note:Teams 12–16 did not have official ODI rankings leading up to the World Cup; they are ranked based on their win percentage against full members and then wins against associate members prior to the tournament." Prior to the main tournament all 16 nations played a series of warm-up matches to prepare, experiment with different tactics, and to help them get acclimated to