<P> The ICC Cricket World Cup is the international championship of One Day International (ODI) cricket . The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), every four years, with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament . The tournament is one of the world's most viewed sporting events and is considered the "flagship event of the international cricket calendar" by the ICC . </P> <P> The first World Cup was organised in England in June 1975, with the first ODI cricket match having been played only four years earlier . However, a separate Women's Cricket World Cup had been held two years before the first men's tournament, and a tournament involving multiple international teams had been held as early as 1912, when a triangular tournament of Test matches was played between Australia, England and South Africa . The first three World Cups were held in England . From the 1987 tournament onwards, hosting has been shared between countries under an unofficial rotation system, with fourteen ICC members having hosted at least one match in the tournament . </P> <P> The World Cup is open to all members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), although the highest - ranking teams receive automatic qualification . The remaining teams are determined via the World Cricket League and the ICC World Cup Qualifier . A total of twenty teams have competed in the eleven editions of the tournament, with fourteen competing in the latest edition in 2015; the next edition in 2019 will have only ten teams . Australia has won the tournament five times, with the West Indies, India (twice each), Pakistan and Sri Lanka (once each) also having won the tournament . The best performance by a non-full - member team came when Kenya made the semi-finals of the 2003 tournament . The tournament is the world's 3rd biggest sporting event behind the FIFA World Cup, Summer Olympics and just ahead of the Rugby World Cup in terms of viewership and crowd attendance . </P> <P> The first international cricket match was played between Canada and the United States, on 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 . </P>

Who has won the cricket world cup the most times