You don't say!

The women got there first
Two years before Clive Lloyd's men beat Australia in that classic Lord's final, cricket had had a rather lower-key World Cup. Thanks to sponsorship from "Union Jack" Hayward, a long-time supporter of women's cricket, the ladies started the ball rolling in 1973, with a seven-team tournament in England. And the home side - captained by Rachael (now Baroness) Heyhoe-Flint - took the title, winning the final match against old rivals Australia by 92 runs. The men got in on the act in 1975.

They're playing for the fifth World Cup
The elegant trophy up for grabs this time has only been in use since 1999, when the ICC took full control of the event. Before that the trophy had been provided by the title sponsors, so Clive Lloyd and Kapil Dev lifted the Prudential Cup, Allan Border the Reliance World Cup, Imran Khan a fragile-looking glass number sponsored by Benson & Hedges, and Arjuna Ranatunga the ornate Wills World Cup in 1996.

If they'd given him a ticket we might still be in England
It's said that NKP Salve, the president of the Indian board at the time, was refused a complimentary ticket for the 1983 final by officials at Lord's. Outraged, he vowed to take the next World Cup - already verbally promised to England again - to India ... and succeeded. It's not known how requests for tickets went down when England reached the Kolkata final.

The ever-presents
Two men at this year's tournament have played in every single one of their country's previous World Cup matches. Steve Tikolo has appeared in all Kenya's 23 games since 1996 - and maintained his record in the first two matches in 2011 - while Bas Zuiderent had played in all the Netherlands' 14 matches prior to 2011, and played in their first one this time too. Like Kenya, the Dutch appeared in their first World Cup in 1996, but they didn't qualify in 1999. Tikolo, now 39, is the oldest of the six players appearing in their fifth World Cup in 2011, the others being Ricky Ponting, Muttiah Muralitharan, Jacques Kallis, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and his Kenyan team-mate Thomas Odoyo. But Sachin Tendulkar trumps them all, as he is appearing in his sixth World Cup, equalling the record of Javed Miandad, who took part in the first six.

Duck hunters
Only two players - both primarily batsmen - have bagged five ducks in the World Cup (prior to 2011): Nathan Astle of New Zealand and Pakistan's Ijaz Ahmed, a World Cup winner in 1992. Hoping not to join them in 2011 will be AB de Villiers, who was out for nought four times in the 2007 World Cup. Gerrie Snyman, part of Namibia's side on their only appearance in 2003, had four innings - and failed to score three times.

When brothers opened the bowling
Fast bowlers Dayle and Richard Hadlee both played for New Zealand in the first World Cup in 1975 - alongside another brother, batsman Barry - but they didn't actually share the new ball in any of the matches. The only fraternal opening pair in World Cup history is the rather less celebrated duo of Martin and Tony Suji, who opened the attack for Kenya in two games in 1999.

Playing for two teams
Before this tournament, the only two men to have played for two different teams in the World Cup were Anderson Cummins (West Indies in 1992, Canada in 2007) and Kepler Wessels (Australia in 1983, South Africa in 1992). They were joined in 2011 by Ed Joyce, who made his debut for his native Ireland after playing for England in 2007. But for injury, Eoin Morgan - who appeared for Ireland in 2007 - would have done the same this time, in reverse. Someone else who nearly managed it was Graeme Hick: he was in Zimbabwe's squad as a 17-year-old in 1983, but was not selected for any of the matches. He subsequently qualified for England, and played in the final in 1992.

Missing two tournaments
Leaving aside Anderson Cummins, whose appearances came for two different countries, only two players have missed two entire World Cups between appearances. Carl Hooper played for West Indies in 1987 and 1992, but not again until he was captain in 2003, while Lameck Onyango of Kenya played one match in 1996 and two more in 2007, but none in between in 1999 and 2003.

Sitting out two tournaments
Marvan Atapattu was in Sri Lanka's World Cup-winning squad in 1996 but didn't play in the tournament, and suffered the same bench-warming fate in 2007, something that contributed to his tirade about the selectors being "a set of muppets headed by a joker" in a press conference shortly before he announced his retirement less than a year later. Atapattu did, however, play in the World Cups of 1999 and 2003.

Garry Sobers was supposed to play in the first one
Although Garry Sobers played what turned out to be the last of his 93 Test matches in 1973-74, he was still included in the West Indies squad for the inaugural World Cup in 1975. But sadly he was forced to pull out with a knee injury, his place being taken by another veteran and former captain, Rohan Kanhai. It remains one of cricket's ironies that Sobers - who would have been a superstar in one-day internationals had he been born a generation or two later - only ever played one of them, and made a duck.

The World Cup's worst batsman?
The Zimbabwean legspinner Adam Huckle faced two balls during his World Cup career - and was dismissed by both of them. Five days after falling first ball to Chris Cairns against New Zealand at Headingley in 1999, Huckle was the middle man in Saqlain Mushtaq's hat-trick for Pakistan at The Oval.