Barely a year goes by without there being some form of Cricket World Cup, and the latest edition of the men’s 50-over tournament gets underway this Thursday, with defending champions England taking on beaten finalists New Zealand in Ahmedabad.
The tournament, featuring ten teams, starts on October 5 but will not finish until November 19 when the final will be held, also in Ahmedabad.
Here’s everything you need to know about the 13th edition of cricket’s global showpiece.
The Cricket World Cup starts on October 5 with the first of 45 group-stage matches.
If that sounds like a lot, it is and, given each match is a one-day 50-over match, that means the tournament is spread over quite a long period of time.
In fact, the group stage takes over a month to complete, with India’s clash against the Netherlands in Bengaluru wrapping up the first phase of the competition on November 12.
The semifinals will then take place on November 15 and November 16, before the final on Sunday, November 19.
That’s 48 matches in all.
Australia gets its tournament underway against the hosts on Sunday, October 8, with the first ball at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai set for 19:30 AEDT.
The Aussies then face South Africa in Lucknow on October 12, staying in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to take on Sri Lanka on October 16.
Bengaluru is the next location for a clash with Pakistan on October 20, before a trip to the capital, Delhi, to meet the Netherlands on October 25 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Australia will face finalists from 2019 New Zealand in Dharamsala on October 28, then taking on the defending champions England in Ahmedabad on November 4.
Next up on the magical mystery tour of India is a trip to the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to meet Afghanistan on November 7, before rounding out the group stages against Bangladesh on November 11 in Pune.
This is the second time the 50-over World Cup has featured just 10 teams, meaning there are some teams that have missed out.
India, as hosts, qualified for the tournament along with the top seven-ranked teams in the ICC Cricket Super League: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa.
The ten teams will all play against each other in a round robin group phase.
The top four teams at the end of that group phase will make it through to the semifinals.
With rain playing a frustrating role in some of the warm-up matches, there is every likelihood that it will play a role in the tournament proper too.
The events of Lord’s four years ago will never be repeated again, with boundary countback consigned to the past.
Now, if teams are tied on runs after 50 overs, the teams will play a super over.
That means the amount of wickets that have fallen means nothing in terms of the overall score.
The last three ODI World Cups have been won by the team who has hosted the final: India in 2011, Australia in 2015 and England in 2019.
India are ranked number one in the ICC ODI rankings and will be hot favourites to take out the title this time around.
Ben Stokes has come back out of international 50-over retirement to bolster a very strong England team, led by Australian World Cup winning coach Matthew Mott.
(ABC)
