Host of the 2019 Cricket World Cup

England and Wales will play host to 2019 world cup after winning the rights over a decade ago. The hosting rights to 2011, 2015 and 2019 world were awarded simultaneously in 2006. Initially, England and Wales put in a joint bid for the 2015 world cup. However, after Australia was beaten out by a joint Asian bid for the 2011 tournament they were offered the hosting rights in 2015. England and Wales were guaranteed the rights to 2019 if they agreed to withdraw their 2015 bid, which they promptly did. England was also granted the rights to the first ever T20 world cup in 2007 at the same time. The cricket tournament was originally going to be an invitational but after all twelve full and provisional members accepted the invitation the ICC granted it official status.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 Betting Odds

Cricket World Cup 2019 Team Group Matches

Cricket World Cup 2019 Schedule

The opening match of the tournament will be held on 30/05/2019 between England and South Africa and the ending cricket world cup match will be on 14/07/2019 at Lord’s. Here’s the complete list of fixtures by ESPNcricinfo:

Qualification for the 2019 Cricket World Cup

Only 10 teams qualified for the 2019 world cup after a decision was taken to shrink the size of the tournament. In 2011 and in 2015 the tournament had 14 teams but ICC has decided few nations will make for better competition. England will qualify automatically because they are hosting the tournament, as will the top seven one day international nations according to the latest ICC rankings 6 months prior to the tournament.

However, that leaves only two spots for the remaining test playing nations and affiliate members of the ICC. Those places have been taken by Afghanistan and West Indies at a qualifying tournament which was held in Bangladesh in March 2018. This tournament included the remaining four teams that failed to make the top seven one day international spots plus the top four teams from the Cricket World League Championships.

Teams Qualified for the 2019 Cricket World Cup

• England (
• India
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Pakistan
• South Africa
• West Indies
• Bangladesh
• Afghanistan
• Sri Lanka

Cricket World Cup 2019 Favourites – Top 3 Teams

• England (current favorurite at 9/4)
• India (11/4)
• Australia (4/1)

Format

In the past, a variety of formats have been used but the reduced number of teams this year means that the format will be much simpler than in previous years. In 2018 there will only be one central group consisting of all 10 teams. In this group stage, every nation will play each other once meaning that there will be a total of 45 group games before the finals stage. Because of this extended group phase, the quarterfinals have been abolished and the top 4 teams will instead progress directly to the semi-finals with the remaining 6 nations knocked out of the tournament. The winners of each respective semi will progress to the final and the winner of that match will be declared world champion.

Venues

Lords, the spiritual home of cricket will play host to the final while The Oval will host the opening game. The two semi-finals according to the English Cricket Board will be played at Edgbaston and Old Trafford. The London stadium will host the opening ceremony and some group stage fixtures. The rest of the games will be played across England and Wales at the grounds which meet the ICCs size and capacity requirements. A list of these stadiums is below.

Favorites to win the 2019 Cricket World Cup

After winning the last World cup Australia are deserved favorites with India and South Africa not far behind. It’d be interesting to see if Steve Smith and David Warner will make it back to the world cup playing eleven after completing their one-year ban for being involved in ball tampering this year against South Africa. Somewhat surprisingly and disappointingly for the hosts, England is the only fourth favorite despite the host country historically having a massive advantage. As you would expect all test playing nations are more heavily favored than the affiliate nations suggesting that the bookmakers believe that they will have no trouble qualifying via the qualification tournament. It should be noted that since the tournament is still over a year way that the above odds are likely to change.

History of the Cricket World Cup

The first world cup was held in 1975 just four years after one day cricket took the world by storm. It was the ICC’s official response to the ‘World series of cricket’ Phenomenon which was proving incredibly popular with fans. In the last 40 years, the tournament has been held all over the cricketing world and has been won by teams from every corner of the globe. The tournament in 2019 will be the twelfth time the competition has been played and the fifth time it has been played in the UK. England and Wales have previously hosted in 1975, 1979, 1983 and 1999.

Controversy

The reduced size of the tournament

Understandably, the affiliate nations of the ICC have protested the decision to shrink the size of the tournament because it will mean that it will be much harder for smaller cricketing nations to qualify. They argue that World Cup berths give their nation’s experience and exposure that they don’t get at any other time and that denying them the chance to compete could set the game back years in their respective countries. According to the affiliate nations, if the ICC wants to grow the game then they should be making the tournament bigger, not smaller.  They further argue that upset wins by nations such as Ireland over England in the 2011 world cup show that they can be competitive and that anything is possible when they are given the chance.

In response, the ICC has defended its decision saying that the move was necessary to ensure the best quality product was being presented to fans in the stands and viewers around the world. They argue that having smaller nations involved was just leading to blowouts which were boring to watch and actually damaged the sport in those smaller countries. They believe that smaller nations are better served by playing each other in competitive matches until such a time comes when they will be able to legitimately compete with the larger cricket nations such as Australia or India.  They also claim the new format is fairer as it allows every competing nation to play every other competing nation. This means the table at the end will be a fairer representation of who the better teams.

Should London Stadium be used?

Another point of controversy is over whether or not London Stadium, the stadium which hosted the London Olympics, should be used as a venue. One of the problems English cricket has faced over the last 100 years is the size of its stadiums. The largest ground they have is Lords and even it only holds 28,000 spectators. That’s less than a third of what the Melbourne Cricket Ground holds and even it sold out quickly when it hosted the World Cup final in 2015. With a capacity of 60,000, the London stadium could mean larger crowds and bigger profits for English cricket.  The ECB also believes that its central location may make the sport more accessible to a new generation of cricket fans.

Using the stadium has its issues, however. The playing surface is currently too small by ICC standards making the boundaries incredibly short. While exemptions have been granted by the ICC before for World Cups, some worry the size of the ground could damage the integrity of the tournament. What’s more, the plan to use London stadium is opposed by the other already established cricket grounds because more games in London mean fewer games elsewhere. They argue that there are already enough stadiums hosting games in the capital and that the other matches should be spread out across England and Wales.

Putting all the controversy to rest, the ECB has finally decided to use both the cricket stadiums in London; The Oval and Lords, for this prestigious once-in-four-year tournament.