2019 Cricket World Cup will take place in England & Wales during the summer starting from 30th May 2015 to 15th July 2015, it will be the 12th 50 over cricket world cup and 5th to be take place in England. Last time World Cup took place in England was back in 1999 where Australia won the competition.
The final of the 2019 Cricket world cup will be played at Lords in London while Oval cricket ground will host the opening match. England will get direct qualification to the 2019 world cup.
New 10 Teams Format for 2019 World Cup:
ICC announced that they are planning to introduce a 10 team format which will have top 8 ODI teams plus two teams who will have to qualify through ICC World Cup Qualifiers 2018. The new format and suggestion of 10 team world cup has been widely criticized during the 2015 world cup. But if we look at the new format its not a bad idea.
World Cup Qualification:
Unlike 14 teams in 2011 and 2015 world cup, ICC plan to have just 10 teams in the 2019 world cup. Where England will get the automatic qualification being the host nation while 7 teams from the top 8 ICC ODI ranking (excluding England) will get the automatic qualification. 2 more teams will join top 8 teams in the world after ICC World Cup qualifiers which will take place in 2018 in Bangladesh.
Ireland and Afghanistan have good chance of getting automatic qualification if they can finish in the top 8 in ODI ranking on 30 September 2017, which means if Ireland or Afghanistan do finish in top 8 ICC ranking one or two of ICC full member might miss out on the automatic qualification.
| World Cup Spots | TEAMS |
| 1 | England (host nation) |
| 2-8 | 7 teams from the top 8 ICC ODI ranked teams as of 30th September 2017 |
| 9-10 | 2 teams from 2018 ICC WC Qualifiers (to take place in Bangladesh) |
ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 Format:
So ICC has decided to go ahead with 10 team format (unless something changes dramatically in coming year or two). ICC and ECB are looking to avoid the problems world cup faced back in 1999 where the tournament was over stretched due to super six event. So for 2019 world cup ICC has decided to go ahead with a round robin format just like 1992.
- Round Robin Format For 2019 World Cup:
Every team will play against other 9 teams in the round robin fashion, which means every team will play 9 matches and top 4 teams will qualify for the semifinals.
So there will be total 48 matches in the competition 45 group games plus 2 semifinals and the big final. This format is pretty good because A) every team will have alot of matches in the competition B) fewer dead rubber games.
ICC Cricket World Cup Venues:
The matches will be played on 11 different venues including Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, Wales. First match to take place at Oval cricket ground and the final will be at Lords cricket ground. The semifinals will take place in Old Trafford, Manchester and Edgbasten, Birmingham.
| NO# | GROUND & Capacity | CITY |
| 1 | Lord’s (28,000) | London |
| 2 | The Oval (28,000) | London |
| 3 | Rose Bowl (28,000) | Southampton |
| 4 | Old Trafford (28,000) | Manchester |
| 5 | Edgbaston (28,000) | Birmingham |
| 6 | Trent Bridge (28,000) | Nottingham |
| 7 | Riverside Ground (28,000) | Chester-le-Street |
| 8 | Headingley (28,000) | Leeds |
| 9 | County Cricket Ground (28,000) | Bristol |
| 10 | Sophia Gardens (28,000) | Cardiff, Wales |
| 11 | County Ground | Taunton |
ICC World Cup 2019 – Fixtures Schedule Release Date ?
The final schedule of the 2019 World Cup will be announced after the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. So we can expect the 2019 world cup full fixtures list to be out in July 2018.
