With an eight team tournament planned again, only one team qualified from the ICC Trophy, held in England in mid 1986.
Zimbabwe yet again dominated the tournament, gaining maximum points in group play, and beating the Netherlands in the final.
The format of the tournament remained much the same, the only difference being the reduction of overs
The location changed, this time to Asia, jointly hosted by the arch-rivals India and Pakistan.
Group A played entirely in India, had Australia, India, New Zealand and Zimbabwe
A thrilling match was India playing Australia in front of a packed house in Madras
Steve Waugh bowled the last man Maninder Singh to give Australia a nail biting win
The Zimbabwe - New Zealand opener was another exciting match
David Houghton, accompanied by Iain Butchart proceeded to play one of the great innings of World cup history
They put on a record 117 for the 8th wicket, before Houghton, tiring and suffering from cramps holed out in the deep to an unbelievable catch from Martin Crowe.
India`s match against New Zealand was closer.
India made short work of Zimbabwe in their first encounter, with Prabhakar reducing Zimbabwe to 13/4 with his opening spell.
Rain interfered with the Australia - New Zealand match with no play on the scheduled day.
For the first time in a World Cup, the over allocations were reduced to 30 a side in an attempt to complete a game on the reserve day.
India reversed the result of the opening match with a fine 56 run win over Australia.
Half centuries from Gavaskar, Sidhu, Vengsarksar and Azharuddin took India to an imposing 289/6
Kapil Dev with 2 wickets and 41* captured the man of the match award.
Zimbabwe`s World Cup ended with a defeat by Australia
Zimbabwe returned home with an enhanced reputation, never completely out of any game, and as the best fielding side of the tournament.
India made the semi-finals in style thumping New Zealand in the final preliminary round match
Facing a modest target of 221, Srikkanth (75), Gavaskar (103*) and Azharuddin (41*) swept India to victory in only 32 overs, and they finished first in the group on run rate
Group-B featured England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies
Most of the games were played in Pakistan
The home team started well defeating Sri Lanka that went to the last over
England and the West Indies contested an extraordinary match, with England the unlikely winners by 2 wickets
England could not pull off the same trick twice, and the lower order collapsed to give Pakistan an 18 run win
Sri Lanka were crushed by the West Indies
Losing by 191 runs, in a match remarkable for the batting of Viv Richards whose 181 was the highest individual innings in World Cup history until passed by Kirsten in 1996
De Mel conceded 97 runs, the worst analysis for 10 completed overs in World Cups, and Haynes almost incidentally made 105
Gaddafi Stadium on Lahore saw a thrilling game between West Indies and Pakistan, with Pakistan scraping out a one wicket win
England`s match against Sri Lanka was affected by rain but it made little difference in a one-sided encounter
After half the preliminary round, the surprise was the West Indies, in third place behind England and Pakistan.
England took on the West Indies in a critical match at Jaipur, with both sides desperately needing the win to advance to the semi-finals.
England sewed up a semi-final place with another easy win over Sri Lanka
West Indies needed a win against Pakistan, already assured of first place in the group, to stand a chance of advancing, and this they did, by 28 runs.
The interesting prospect of an India - Pakistan final loomed as England took on India in Bombay, and Australia played Pakistan in Lahore.
80,000 people filled Eden Gardens to watch two other old enemies England and Australia contest the closest World Cup final to date
Australia won their first World Cup by just 7 runs.
It was a fine team effort by Australia, with Marsh, Boon, Waugh, Jones and Velletta all averaging over 40, and Boon and Marsh scoring over 400 runs.
Boon had five half-centuries in 8 innings, a World Cup record.
McDermott led all bowlers with 18 wickets, another World Cup record,