LIMITED OVERS CRICKET - a timeline
May 1963 - The first limited over competition (the Gillette Cup) is introduced for English counties.
January 1971 - The first one-day international is played between Australia and England at MCG. The match is on 40 8-balls overs.
June 1975 - The first World Cup is contested in England in 60-overs matches. West Indies win, defeating Australia in the final by 17 runs.
January 1978 - Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket are responsible for many major tweakings to the limited overs game: coloured clothing is used for the first time in a match between an Australian XI (wearing light yellow) and a West Indian XI (wearing coral pink), white balls and black sightscreens are also used. The first fielding restrictions appear: no more than two players may field farther than 28 metres from the bat for the first ten overs.
1979 - The West Indies win the second World Cup in England, beating the hosts by 92 runs in the final.
November 1979 - The first ICC-sanctioned day/night game is played between Australia and West Indies at SCG.
1983 - India wins the third World Cup by beating the West Indies by 43 runs at Lord's. From the competition on, four fielders need to stay inside the circle at any time.
October 1987 - The first World Cup in the Indian subcontinent takes place. Matches are reduced to 50 overs per side to take into account shorter daylight times. Australia defeats England by 7 runs in the final.
Late 1988 - Players names on the back are introduced.
1992 - The World Cup is held in Australia and New Zealand and, from now on, coloured clothing and white balls become common place in any limited overs international. Pakistan wins the competition beating England by 22 runs in the final.
The rain rule inforced for the tournament (that subtracts the worst overs from the target of the team batting second) is widely criticised, after in a match South Africa - set before the rain interruption a feasible target - needs 21 runs off 1 ball to win against England.
November 1992 - Third umpires are introduced.
Late 1995 - Players numbers are introduced.
1996 - The Duckworth/Lewis method is first applied in international matches to set the target in rain-shortened matches.
1996 - Hosts Sri Lanka beats Australia by 7 wickets to win the World Cup (played in also in Pakistan and India)
1999 - Australia beats Pakistan by 8 wickets at Lord's to win the World Cup.
2003 - The World Cup is played in South Africa and Kenya reaches the semifinals (the best result for a non-test team). Australia beat India by 125 runs in the final.
The England and Wales Cricket Board introduces a 20-overs competition, the Twenty20 Cup. It has an immense success and from now one, two ditinct limited overs formats can be distinguished.
July 2005 - Powerplays are introduced. The first two-outside fielders block is mandatorily taken in the first 10 overs of each innings. Two more 5-overs blocks are taken by both sides whenever they want.
July 2005 - The supersub is introduced. The twelfth player can substitute anytime a player from the starting eleven and can bat, bowl and keep wicket (just like any other ordinary player)
March 2006 - The supersub rule is abolished
2007 - The World Cup is played in the West Indies. Australia defeats Sri Lanka in the final by 53 runs (D/L) in conditions widely described as farcical, with the match extending well after lights abandoned the field.
June 2007 - White balls are mandatorily changed after 35 overs.
June 2008 - The 20-overs Indian Premier League is launched. It is the first franchise-based competition in the world.
October 2008 - Batting powerplay can now be taken without any restriction.
September 2009 - The 20-overs Champions League is launched. It is the first worldwide competition for local teams (in perspective, it should become a kind of world championship for local franchises).
February 2010 - Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first player to score 200 runs (not out) in an international innings, against South Africa in Gwalior.
June 2010 - The Australian limited over domestic competition experiments with the infra-innings interruption (the first block is composed of 20 overs, the second one of 25 overs). Over 45 overs, 12 overs per bowler are allowed (the first time any bowler is allowed more than 20% of the total number of overs).
February 2011 - The Umpire Decision Review System is used in the World Cup.
