2019 ICC World Cup: India to play Opener against South Africa on June 5

World-Cup-2019

2019 ICC World Cup proposed schedule has been changed (for India) in compliance with the Lodha Committee recommendation. As opposed to the earlier schedule of India’s opening match on June 2, it will now be played on June 5 against South Africa. The changes have been made in lines with the Lodha Committee which states that there must be a 15-day gap between the IPL final and an international assignment.

The IPL will commence next year on March 29 and will go on until May 19 followed by the ICC World Cup 2019 from May 30. The World Cup will be staged in the UK and the final will take place on July 14.

The proposed schedule had India playing against Pakistan on June 2 but since it violated the rule of the 15-day mandatory gap, BCCI took up the matter at the ICC’s Chief Executive meeting on Tuesday. After that, it was decided that India will play its opening match of the World Cup on June 5 against South Africa.

As far as the match between India and Pakistan is concerned, it has now been scheduled for June 16. Another change brought in the upcoming World Cup is that the number of participating teams has been reduced from 14 to 10. All these teams will play in a round robin league i.e. each team will play all other teams in turn.

Talking about the overall matches, the period of international cricket matches across all formats has been reduced for India. Now India will play maximum 309 days which 92 days less than the earlier schedules. However, the number of Tests has been increased from 15 to 19. Also, India is less likely to play any day-night tests in the near future.

India had won the 2011 World Cup after a long gap of 28 years but in 2015 India lost to Australia in the Semi Final. This time, hopes are quite high and the fans are expecting that India will again lift the world cup trophy.

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