As all the teams participating in the much-awaited International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 gear up for the high-voltage tournament, the fans wait eagerly for the action to begin.
The showpiece event is scheduled to start in India on October 5 (tomorrow), with the opening match between defending champions England and last edition’s runner-up New Zealand.
World Cup 2023 will see 10 teams fighting for the elusive title across 10 venues till November 19, with the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad hosting the tournament opener and the final.
Qualification
After India booked their spot in the event as hosts, the next seven teams were decided by finishing positions in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League, a three-year competition where 13 teams featured in eight three-match bilateral series each.
New Zealand, England, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa all confirmed their place in the Cricket World Cup via a top eight position in the competition, while the bottom five went on to the Cricket World Cup Qualifier, joining others from League 2 and the Qualifier Play-off tournament.
Sri Lanka and the Netherlands went on to progress to Cricket World Cup 2023 only via the Qualifier.
Format
The Cricket World Cup will be played in the round-robin format with all teams playing against each other for a total of 45 league matches.
The top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals, which will be held in Mumbai on November 15 and in Kolkata on November 16. The semi-finals and the final will have reserve days.
Tiebreaker for semi-finals
If teams have the same number of points after the round-robin stage, total wins are the next tie-breaker, with net run rate the next factor to consider when differentiating teams.
Bearing in mind the 2019 edition, seven wins from nine should be enough to guarantee a semi-final spot, with India and Australia’s 7-2 record (India also had an extra point for a rained-out fixture) four years ago enough to place both in the top two.
Prize money
The winners of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 will earn US$4 million. The runners-up will receive US$2 million, while the losing semi-finalists will earn $800,000 each from the total prize pot of US$10 million.
The winners of each match in the group stage will receive US$40,000 and the six teams that do not qualify for the semi-finals will receive a payment of US$100,000.
Tickets
Tickets are available for a number of Cricket World Cup fixtures, with others yet to open for the general public.
You can log onto tickets.cricketworldcup.com/explore/c/icc-cricket-world-cup for details.
Schedule
Plenty of exciting matches are scheduled to take place during the World Cup with the best teams in the world competing in the event.
The complete schedule for ICC World Cup 2023 in available here.
Squads
According to the tournament’s regulations, all teams were supposed to finalise their 15-player squads prior to September 28, with any replacements after this date requiring approval from the ICC.
The complete squads for ICC World Cup 2023 are available here.
Official broadcasters
The ICC World Cup 2023 matches will be shown live on PTV Sports in Pakistan, Star Sports in India, Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, ESPN in the United States of America (USA) and Fox Sports in Australia.