5 Cricket World Cup facts that you may not know

India won the 50 over World Cup in 2011

Facts. It is perhaps Rafa Benitez’s favourite word and definitely something most enjoy knowing—especially if it is fun or rather unknown. Facts are the basis of almost everything in life as, in most cases, we make our decisions based on them.

In the sporting fraternity, facts hold an important place since it creates hype—something we love when it comes to sports. It is no different in cricket either as decades of playing the sport has garnered a lot of facts, some of which are intriguing as well as little known.

With 11 World Cups played, cricket has its fair share of facts and here are 5 World Cup facts that you probably don’t know…

1) First ODI hit-wicket ever

Roy Fredericks falling over

There are many ways for a batsman to get out. One of the rare ones are hit-wickets. It is not often that one sees a batsman hitting the stumps with the bat or any part of the body. However, it does happen every once in a while, but the first time this happened in an ODI game was in a clash of the highest magnitude.

Playing in the final of the 1975 World Cup, Roy Fredericks was facing the speedster Dennis Lillee. The Australian banged in a short ball, which the West Indian hooked with force, so much that the ball went for a six while he lost his balance and his flailing leg touched the stumps, making him the first ever hit-wicket victim in ODIs.