The first World Cup of cricket was a round robin tournament in which the hosts, England, won inaugural trophy.
Organising the teams from different parts of the world became difficult and expensive for participating nations. India and Bermuda withdrew, along with South Africa and this led to the formation of the “International XI” and Young England as replacements.
The matches were the first One Day Internationals played by women and were 60 over games.
Participating teams: England, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, International XI and Young England. (It should be noted that the West Indies did not exist as a team at the time, hence the separate nations.)
Each team played six matches and the leader of the table at that point would declared the winner. There was no final. Fate stepped in and provided one, for Australia (17 points) and England (16 points) were leading the table with one match to play: England v Australia. The winner would take the trophy.
Final match: England 279/3 (Enid Bakewell 118, Rachael Heyhoe Flint 64, Lynne Thomas 40, Miriam Knee 2-53) defeated Australia 187/9 (Jackie Potter 57, Bev Wilson 41, Elaine Bray 40, Enid Bakewell 2-28, Sue Hilliam 2-34, Mary Pilling 2-41) by 92 runs
The final placings of the teams: England 20, Australia 17, New Zealand 13, International XI 13, Trinidad & Tobago 8, Jamaica 5, Young England 4
Embed from Getty ImagesLimited Footage
Below is a 6 minute video, minus sound, of the final match of the 1973 World Cup.