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Before the 1975 World Cup, only 46 ODIs were played.

The inaugural Cricket World Cup was hosted in 1975 by England. Madan Lal of Indian Cricket Team bowled the first ball to Dennis Amiss of England Cricket Team in the 1975 World Cup. The 1975 Cricket World Cup (officially called the Prudential Cup '75) was the first edition of the Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Conference (ICC) and was the first major limited overs One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament to be held. It was held from 7 to 21 June 1975 in England. The tournament was sponsored by Prudential Assurance Company and had eight participating countries: the six Test-playing teams of the time (Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and the West Indies), plus leading Associate nations Sri Lanka and, for the only time, East Africa. The teams were divided into two groups of four, with each team playing the other teams in their group once; the top two from each group qualified for the semi-finals, with the winners of these matches meeting in the final. Each match consisted of 60 overs per team and was played in traditional white clothing and with red balls; all were played during the day and hence started early. The concept of ODI cricket was still in the early stages and in the years between 1971 and 1975, only 18 such matches between the Test playing nations had been contested. England, New Zealand West Indies and Australia were the teams to qualify for the semi-finals, making this the only World Cup thus far in which no team from the Indian subcontinent made this stage. Australia defeated England and the West Indies beat New Zealand, before the West Indies, the pre-tournament favourites, defeated Australia in the final at Lord's by 17 runs to become the first World Cup winners.