2023 Cricket World Cup

2023 Cricket World Cup
The 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup is the 13th edition of the Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament is being hosted by India. It started on 5 October and is scheduled to conclude on 19 November 2023. England are the defending champions, having won the 2019 edition by defeating New Zealand in the final at Lord's, London.
Ten national teams are participating. All had to qualify for the tournament through the 2023 Cricket World Cup qualification process. India qualified as hosts; Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa qualified via the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League, with the Netherlands and Sri Lanka securing the final two places via the qualifier tournament in Zimbabwe during June and July 2023, with West Indies missing out on qualification for the first time in their history.
It is the first men's Cricket World Cup which India is hosting solely. They co-hosted the 1987, 1996 and 2011 editions with other nations. The tournament is taking place in ten different stadiums, in ten cities across India. The first and second semi-finals will be held at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and Eden Gardens in Kolkata respectively, while the final will take place at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
The top seven placed teams in the tournament's final points table, along with Pakistan who are hosts, will qualify for the next ICC ODI tournament - the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
Background
Originally, the competition was to be played from 9 February to 26 March 2023. In July 2020 it was announced that that the tournament would be moved to October and November as a result of the qualification schedule being disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ICC released the tournament schedule on 27 June 2023.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had threatened to boycott the competition after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) refused to send a team to the 2023 Asia Cup scheduled in Pakistan. This issue was resolved in June 2023 after the Asian Cricket Council announced that the competition would be hosted using a hybrid model proposed by the PCB, with nine of the 13 matches in the competition played in Sri Lanka.
This is the first ICC World Cup in which penalties for slow over-rates will be given to bowling sides if they do not complete their 50 overs in the stipulated time. On-field umpires can penalise the bowling team by not allowing more than four fielders outside the 30-yard circle.
Qualification
Like the previous World Cup, the tournament will feature 10 teams. The main route for qualification was, however, through the new ICC Cricket World Cup Super League, a series of matches played between 2020 and 2023 rather than the ODI rankings. The top eight of the 13 sides in the Super League qualified for the World Cup automatically, although as hosts India, who finished fourth, were guaranteed a place. In June and July 2023, the bottom five teams from the Super League and the top five ranked associate sides competed in the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier for the remaining two places.
As a result of the qualifying process, the competition is the first not to include former winners West Indies, who failed to progress from the qualifying process after their defeat to Scotland. Full members Ireland and Zimbabwe also missed out on qualification, meaning three of the four full members who took part in the knock-out qualification stage did not qualify, with only Sri Lanka progressing. The final qualification spot fell to an eliminator between associate members, Scotland and Netherlands. The Netherlands won the eliminator and took the final spot in the finals stage of the competition.
Marketing
The International Cricket Council announced the winner's trophy would tour the world 100 days before the commencement of the event. Photographs of the trophy were taken at each location.
Ahead of the tournament, it was reported that an opening ceremony would take place on 4 October 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, a day before the opening match at the same venue. The organisers cancelled the opening ceremony, and replaced it with a press conference featuring the ten team captains.
The ICC officially announced the mascots for the World Cup on August 19; following the announcement, there was an event held in Gurgaon with two U-19 World Cup-winning captains, Shafali Verma and Yash Dhull. The mascots are a male and female duo named "Tonk" and "Blaze" respectively from the fictional cricketing utopia called "Crictoverse". They embody the principle of gender equality.
The official theme song of the 2023 Cricket World Cup titled "Dil Jashn Bole" was released on 20 September. The song was composed by Pritam while lyrics were written by Shloke Lal and Saaveri Verma. The song was sung by Pritam, Nakash Aziz, Sreerama Chandra, Amit Mishra, Jonita Gandhi, Akasa Singh and S. P. Charan. The accompanying music video featured actor Ranveer Singh, many Indian Instagram reel makers and YouTubers. However, the song was subject to backlash, bad reviews.
Venues
The tournament is taking place in ten different stadiums, situated in ten different cities across India. The first and second semi-finals will be held at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and Eden Gardens in Kolkata respectively, while the final will take place at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The BCCI has provided funding for renovations and refurbishments at stadiums. Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium received a new grass surface, drainage system, seating, and hospitality boxes. Wankhede Stadium had upgrades to the outfield, floodlights, corporate boxes, and toilets. M. A. Chidambaram Stadium installed new floodlights and relaid two wickets.
With the autumn scheduling of this World Cup, the ICC instituted protocols for reducing the impact of moisture—including dew and rain—on pitch conditions, so that they do not give the team batting second an advantage (as had frequently occurred in the 2021 Men's T20 World Cup). These include using a specific wetting agent, and the boundary set at around at each stadium, with more grass on the pitch to encourage seam bowling over spin bowling.
Squads
All teams were asked to finalise their 15-player squads prior to 28 September, with any replacements after this date requiring approval from the ICC. All squads were announced by 26 September 2023. The oldest player of the tournament was Dutch player Wesley Barresi, who was 39 years old, while the youngest was Afghan spinner Noor Ahmad, who was 18.
Match officials
On 8 September 2023, the ICC named 20 match officials for the tournament.
On 25 September 2023, ICC published the list of umpires for match-wise appointments.
Umpires
Australia
Paul Reiffel
Rod Tucker
Paul Wilson
Bangladesh
Sharfuddoula
England
Michael Gough
Richard Illingworth
Richard Kettleborough
Alex Wharf
India
Nitin Menon
New Zealand
Chris Gaffaney
Chris Brown
Pakistan
Ahsan Raza
South Africa
Marais Erasmus
Adrian Holdstock
Sri Lanka
Kumar Dharmasena
West Indies
Joel Wilson
Referees
The ICC also named four match referees for the tournament.
Javagal Srinath
Jeff Crowe
Richie Richardson
Andy Pycroft
Prize money
The ICC allocated a pool of US$10 million in prize money for the tournament, with payouts remaining the same as the 2019 and 2015 tournaments:
Warm-up matches
Warm-up matches were held from 29 September to 3 October 2023 at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad, Assam Cricket Association Stadium in Guwahati, and Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram.
India's warm-up fixtures were announced on 27 June. The complete warm-up fixtures were announced on 23 August. The matches were broadcast live on television.
Group stage
The ICC announced the World Cup schedule on 27 June 2023 at an event in Mumbai with a countdown of 100 days to the opening match of the World Cup on 5 October. The group stage started with the match between the finalists of the 2019 Cricket World Cup, New Zealand and England, at Narendra Modi Stadium. On 9 August 2023, nine fixtures, including the match between India and Pakistan, were rescheduled by the ICC. The top seven placed teams in the tournament's final points table, along with Pakistan who are hosts, will qualify for the next ICC ODI tournament - the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
Points table
Fixtures
The ICC released the fixture details on 27 June 2023.
Knockout stage
The ICC has stated that if Pakistan qualify for the semi-finals, they will play at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. If India qualifies for the semi-finals, they will play at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai unless India's opponent is Pakistan (the match will be held at Eden Gardens in Kolkata in this case). All knockout matches will have a reserve day.
Semi-finals
Final
Statistics
Most runs
Most wickets
Broadcasting
Star Sports will serve as the host broadcaster for this Cricket World Cup, in association with the ICC. Star Sports and its sister streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar serve as the domestic broadcasters of the tournament, announcing plans to televise and stream matches in English and eight regional languages.Disney+ Hotstar announced they set to broadcast all matches free without a subscription on mobile devices.
The ICC and Disney Star announced that each match would feature dedicated feeds in a vertical video format optimised for viewing on smartphones, using dedicated camera angles, graphics, and "bespoke production enhancements".
The list below includes all official broadcasters of the tournament, listed by country or territory.
Notes
See also
List of Cricket World Cup finals
List of Cricket World Cup records
References
External links
Tournament – home at ESPNcricinfo
2023 in Indian sport
World Cup
2023
World Cup, 2023
World Cup, 2023
October 2023 sports events in India
November 2023 sports events in India
Current sports events