(ATR) The 12th Cricket World Cup, co-hosted by England and Wales, begins on Thursday with a match between England and South Africa at the Oval in London.
This is the fifth time England has hosted or co-hosted the International Cricket Council’s showpiece event, the most of any country. The English team is the favorite to win its first title this time around. India, which won in 1983 and 2011, is the second choice among bookmakers with five-time winners Australia the third option.
ICC Chief Executive David Richardson says he is anticipating "the greatest celebration of cricket ever" and is hoping that the World Cup will inspire a new generation of fans.
The 2019 World Cup includes 10 teams, a decrease from the 14 that participated in the previous two tournaments in 2011 and 2015. England qualified as host and Bangladesh, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka joined India and Australia in earning automatic qualification through the ICC ODI rankings. The final two spots went to the West Indies and Afghanistan, who advanced through the qualifying tournament held in March of last year. Zimbabwe misses out for the first time since 1983 and Ireland for the first time since 2007.
The 10 teams are in a single group and will play each other once in the first phase of the tournament, which runs from May 30 to July 6. The top four in the group advance to the semifinals, which will be played on July 9 and July 11. The winners of the two semifinal matches play in the final on July 14.
The highlight of the group match fixtures should be India and Pakistan, scheduled to meet on June 16 in Manchester. Cricket’s biggest rivalry has been limited in recent years to meetings in ICC tournaments. The two countries have not played a test series since 2007 and have not played a bilateral series since 2012 due to the ongoing political tensions between the two countries. Pakistan has not hosted any international cricket since the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore.
Written by Gerard Farek
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