Brief Introduction to the ICC World Cup 2015
The 11th edition of the ICC World Cup will be played in Australia and New Zealand from 14th February to 29th March 2015. There will be 49 matches in total which will be played in 14 different venues in Australia and 23 matches in all which will be played in 7 various cities of New Zealand. The final of the tournament will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). The total number of teams will be 14 with more than 400 players and officials will take part in it.
Bid Process for the ICC World Cup 2015
The Trans-Tasman bid was the only bid to host the 2015 World Cup, but the only hurdle which would have hurt the winning of it was the participation of Zimbabwe because of the stern political relations between Zimbabwe and New Zealand but the New Zealand government assured the New Zealand Cricket Board that it will allow Zimbabwe to participate in the World Cup hence the hosting rights were awarded to Australia and New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand will host the ICC Cricket World Cup for the second time after 1992.
Qualification for the Associated Nations for the ICC World Cup 2015
ICC’s CEC first decided in 2011 that only 10 full members will participate in the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, but after opposition from Ireland, which did really well in the 2011 World Cup, ICC took back this decision and allowed 14 teams to participate via a qualification process for the non-associate and non-affiliated teams. In an ICC World Cup Qualifier tournament played in New Zealand in 2014 Scotland, Afghanistan and United Arab Emirates qualified for the World Cup 2015 where Ireland qualified automatically based on their performance of 2011 World Cup.
Format of the ICC World Cup 2015
- Round Robin in two groups A and B where each team in the group will play against each other once.
- Top 4 teams from each group will qualify for the Quarter Finals
- Winners of the quarterfinals will advance to the two Semi Finals
- Finals will be played between the winners of the two Semi Finals
The ICC World Cup 2015 Venues
Australia
- Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Melbourne – Capacity: 100, 024
- Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), Sydney – Capacity: 48, 000
- Adelaide Oval, Adelaide – Capacity: 53, 500
- Wooloongabba, Brisbane Cricket Ground, Brisbane – Capacity: 42, 000
- WACA Ground, Perth – Capacity: 24, 500
- Bellerive Oval, Hobart – Capacity: 20, 000
- Manuka Oval, Canberra – Capacity: 13, 550
New Zealand
- Eden Park, Auckland – Capacity: 46, 000
- Hagley Oval, Christchurch – Capacity: 20, 000
- Seddon Park, Hamilton – Capacity: 12, 000
- McLean Park, Napier – Capacity: 20, 000
- Wellington Regional Stadium, Wellington – Capacity: 33, 000
- Saxton Oval, Nelson – Capacity: 5, 000
- University Oval – Dunedin Capacity: 6, 000
ICC World Cup 2015 – Groups
Group A
- England
- Australia
- Sri Lanka
- Bangladesh
- New Zealand
- Afghanistan
- Scotland
Group B
- South Africa
- India
- Pakistan
- West Indies
- Zimbabwe
- Ireland
- United Arab Emirates
