INDIA TO START 2019 WORLD CUP CAMPAIGN AGAINST SOUTH AFRICA

           

England and Wales will host the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2019 which will played from 30^th May 2019 to 14^th July 2019. England gained the hosting right in 2006, when the hosting rights for 2011, 2015 and 2019 world Cups were awarded. The 2019 CWC will feature 10 teams, a decrease from the World Cup  in 2011 and 2015 which featured 14 teams. The teams featuring in 2019 World Cup are:

AUSTRALIA	BANGLADESH	ENGLAND	INDIA	NEW ZEALAND
PAKISTAN	SOUTH AFRICA	SRI LANKA	AFGHANISTAN	WEST INDIES

The schedule is not out yet, but what is confirm is that India will play their opening game against South Africa on June 5 instead of June 2. The reason behind the change of schedule is that the BCCI will have to maintain a mandatory gap of 15 days between IPL Final and International assignment as recommended by the Lodha Committee. IPL 2019 is scheduled to be played from March 29 to May 19. So a gap of 15 days means India could not play any game before June 4, so this change was initiated.

Another interesting thing is that ICC always start India’s campaign on big tournament with a Indo-Pak match which is a guaranteed sell out as it happened in 2015 world Cup (in Adelaide) and in 2017 Champion Trophy (in Birmingham) but in 2019 World Cup India will start their campaign against South Africa and will face arch-rival Pakistan on June 16.

The format of the fixture will be the same as in 1992 World Cup, where all the 10 teams will play against each other i.e. a total of 45 matches will be played while each team will play 9 games. The top 4 team will progress to the knockout stage.

The tournament opener will be played between the host England and South Africa at the Oval on 30^th May 2019.

Saquib Akhter, Signing off for the day. Thank You.