2015 Cricket World Cup: 15 interesting facts

The World Cup trophy that the 14 participating teams will be playing for

The ICC World Cup is right around the corner with just under 2 weeks to go before the mega event gets underway.

Here are some interesting facts about the tournament, probably some of which you wouldn't know about.

1. England have not played a World Cup semi-final since 1992. There have been 5 World Cups since then, and England have not finished in the top four in either one of them. All the top 8 ranked ODI teams have played at least one semi-final in the past 5 World Cups; even minnows Kenya have played one.

2. There have been only two editions of the World Cup which have used the quarterfinals format. South Africa and England are the only teams who have never won a World Cup quarterfinal.

3. India and Sri Lanka are the only teams who have won both their World Cup quarterfinals. The other four teams - Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, and West Indies - have all won one and lost one quarterfinal.

4. The last 6 World Cups since 1992 have witnessed at least one Asian team contest the final. Three of those finals were won by Australia; in each one they beat the Asian teams - Pakistan (’99), India (’03), and Sri Lanka (’07). The other three finals were won by Asian teams - Pakistan (’92), Sri Lanka (’96), and India (’11).

5. Australia have played in 5 of the last 7 World Cup finals. The only one they did not play in, besides the last one, was when it was hosted by them in 1992.

6. Pakistan's Shahid Afridi and Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene will be appearing in their fifth World Cup. Sachin Tendulkar and Javed Miandad are the only players to have represented their countries in six World Cups.

7. India's squad has only 4 members (Dhoni, Raina, Kohli, Ashwin) that were a part of their World Cup winning squad in 2011. Australia's squad also has 4 members (Clarke, Haddin, Watson, and Johnson) that were a part of their World Cup winning squad in 2007.

8. Only the coaches of England, South Africa, New Zealand, Afghanistan, and Scotland - Peter Moores, Russel Domingo, Mike Hesson, Andy Moles, and Grant Bradburn respectively - have not played in a World Cup.

9. All other coaches - Darren Lehmann (Australia), Waqar Younis (Pakistan), Duncan Fletcher (India), Chandika Hathurusingha (Bangladesh), Marvan Atapattu (Sri Lanka), Ottis Gibson (West Indies), Aaqib Javed (UAE), Phil Simmons (West Indies) - have played in at least one World Cup.

10. Dav Whatmore, the coach of Zimbabwe, has not played in a World Cup, but he has coached a World Cup winning team - Sri Lanka in 1996.

11. Aaqib Javed, Phil Simmons, Duncan Fletcher, and Chandika Hathurusingha are coaching different teams than the ones they played for in a World Cup.

12. No batsman playing this World Cup has more than 1,000 World Cup runs. The highest World Cup run scorer playing in the 2015 edition is Kumar Sangakkara (991 runs), followed by Mahela Jayawardene (975 runs).

13. The highest World Cup wicket-taker playing in 2015 is Lasith Malinga (31), followed by Shahid Afridi (28).

14. The 40-year-old Misbah-ul-Haq is not the oldest player at the World Cup. It is UAE's captain, the 43-year-old Mohammad Tauqir.

15. South Africa have never ever won a knockout game in a World Cup. They reached the semi-finals of the 1992, 1999 and 2007 editions and the quarterfinals of the 1996 and 2011 editions, but they lost all those games. The only World Cup in which they did not reach the knockout stage was the one they played at home in 2003.