<P> 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 match 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 game with eight balls per over . </P> <P> In the late 1970s, Kerry Packer established the rival World Series Cricket (WSC) competition . It introduced many of the now commonplace features of One Day International cricket, including coloured uniforms, matches played at night under floodlights with a white ball and dark sight screens, and, for television broadcasts, multiple camera angles, effects microphones to capture sounds from the players on the pitch, and on - screen graphics . The first of the matches with coloured uniforms was the WSC Australians in wattle gold versus WSC West Indians in coral pink, played at VFL Park in Melbourne on 17 January 1979 . 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 . </P> <P> The inaugural Cricket World Cup was hosted in 1975 by England, the only nation able to put forward the resources to stage an event of such magnitude at the time . The 1975 tournament started on 7 June . The first three events were held in England and officially known as the Prudential Cup after the sponsors Prudential plc . The matches consisted of 60 six - ball overs per team, played during the daytime in traditional form, with the players wearing cricket whites and using red cricket balls . </P> <P> Eight teams participated in the first tournament: Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and the West Indies (the six Test nations at the time), together with Sri Lanka and a composite team from East Africa . One notable omission was South Africa, who were banned from international cricket due to apartheid . The tournament was won by the West Indies, who defeated Australia by 17 runs in the final at Lord's . </P>

When was the first cricket world cup held