Cricket World Cup History: 3 teams who played only one World Cup

The ICC Cricket World Cup is the mega-event of cricket where cricketing nations from all over the world compete to determine which team is the best. The Australians have emerged as the most successful team in Cricket World Cup with 5 World Cup wins to their name, while India and West Indies have won the World Cup twice The teams from Pakistan and Sri Lanka have won it once.

ICC has always tried to spread the cricket fever in all the countries of the world and hence, it has always tried to invite as many as teams as possible to play the World Cup, with the year 2019 being the exception. Till date, 20 teams have taken part in the ICC World Cup since the tournament's inception in 1975.

The full members of ICC have been a regular in the World Cup but the associate nations have to qualify for the tournament by playing the Qualifiers. As new teams kept on rising in the field of cricket, several new teams made it to the World Cup. However, there have been 3 teams in cricket history who could play only one World Cup -

#3 Namibia

Daniel Keulder of Namibia in action

Namibia qualified for their first ever World Cup by finishing in the top three of the ICC Trophy tournament in 2001. They were a part of Group A of the 2003 World Cup. Namibia played its first World Cup match versus Zimbabwe at Harare. They later played the likes of Australia, India, England, Pakistan, and the Netherlands but could not win a single match.

They were crushed by India, Pakistan, and Australia in the group stage. The Namibians could not make it to the 2007 World Cup and the World Cups played afterwards because of their poor performances in the qualifiers.

#2 Bermuda

Group B, Bermuda v India - Cricket World Cup 2007

Representing the British overseas territory of Bermuda, the Bermudans made their ICC World Cup debut in 2007. This was the first time that the World Cup was being played in the West Indies and being West Indies' neighbors, Bermuda got a good amount of support in the stands. They played their first World Cup match against Sri Lanka where the 1996 champions thrashed them by 243 runs.

Bermuda faced India next and this time they lost by an even bigger margin of 257 runs thanks to Virender Sehwag's century. They batted first in their final group game versus Bangladesh only lose to the match by 7 wickets. Bermuda bid farewell to the World Cup after suffering three heavy losses to the Asian countries.

The team has failed to repeat its past success in the World Cup Qualifiers and are currently playing in the lower divisions of the World Cricket League.

#1 East Africa

East Africa represented Africa in 1975

Only 8 teams took part in the inaugural Cricket World Cup played in 1975 and East Africa was among them. East Africa was one of the two teams who were invited to play the Cricket World Cup along with the six full members of the board. The African team joined India, England and New Zealand in Group A.

They played their first World Cup match versus New Zealand and lost the match by 181 runs. Glenn Turner had scored 171 runs in that match. In their second game, India crushed them by 10 wickets while England sent them out of the tourney with a 196-runs defeat.

East Africa finished last in the Group A of the 1975 World Cup. The East African team was suspended by ICC in 1989. The team of East and Central Africa replaced them in the world of cricket.

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