Cricket World Cup 2019: What you need to know for the Summer?

Posted By: Voice of London 11 December 2018

With the Oval set to kick-off the Cricket World Cup in just under six months’ time The Voice of London looks at all you need to know about the competition and you can get to watch it.

The Format

At lot has changed in Cricket over the past four years with England rising from seventh in the rankings to first, and the competition too has taken a major change in its format.

For this edition there will be only ten teams participating instead of the usual 14. Each team will play each other in a round robin group stage, this was normally split into two groups. The top four teams after each team has played nine games will progress to the semi-finals as per any other tournament.

 

The change to ten has been divisive between fans, with some saying it will make the tournament more competitive with others saying it is detrimental to the expansion of the game as global sport.

Kyle Coetzer, Scotland captain, said, after failing to qualify earlier this year: “”We wanted to make a scene and get to the World Cup. That was for what we feel was for the good of the game and we were within five runs.”

They were playing West Indies in the qualifiers when rain struck when they were 125-5 chasing a lowly 199.

But Mohammed Bappy Chowdhary, a Bangladesh fan, said: “I guess it is the fairest format ever as everyone will play everyone. All the teams will have to play really to be in the semi-finals.”

But the question will still remain if this is better for sport.? We will not see Ireland in this competition, who dramatically beat England in the 2011 edition, when Kevin O’Brien smashed the fastest ever World Cup Century in 50-balls. We do get to see a bit of vibrancy in the form of Afghanistan but for countries like Scotland, Oman and even Hong-Kong you can’t help but feel they are being forgotten.

The Venues

There will be eleven grounds hosting, (as shown on the map below), each ground will hold a minimum of 3 games, with Lords, including the final, and the Oval hosting five games each.

The two London grounds host the two biggest games of the tournament for England. The Oval will host the opening game against South Africa and Lords is the location of choice for the Australia game.

Another game of note is India vs Pakistan. The fierce rivalry between the two nations will be taking place at Manchester’s Old Trafford on Sunday 16thJune, a must watch for the atmosphere alone.

 

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1c8EuVIhpAb8rl4XU030FbIKDVV1cscrs&hl=en&w=640&h=480]

 

Ticket Prices

If you want to watch any of matches in person then the ICC have set up their own ticketing website, unfortunately prices a very expensive if you are hoping to watch England, with cheapest price coming at £40 to watch them against Bangladesh in Cardiff.

The most expensive tickets are £235, this of course, for England’s two games in London, as well as India’s and their games against South Africa in Birmingham and the Pakistan game.

The Cheapest tickets are £20 for the smaller games, which is an option if you don’t want to be bankrupt for the summer holiday.

 

Some have criticised this pricing structure as extreme. However, Mohammed said: “I’ve got six match tickets thus far the most expensive was the England game. I’m really looking forward to it.”

To buy tickets head to:  https://tickets.cricketworldcup.com/ticketingInfo.html

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