Extremely difficult to pick a winner in 2019 World Cup: ICC CEO

On being asked about the recently released ICC T20 World Cup groups, where arch-rivals India and Pakistan are placed in different groups, Richardson said that the ICC arranged the groups in a way that has credibility, and is based on the rankings

With the ICC World Cup just hardly five months away, ICC CEO David Richardson said that it was extremely hard to pick a clear winner. However, David backed India saying that the Virat-led men have made a great progress in the recent years and it would be exceptionally difficult to beat them.

Richardson gave this statement at an event where he also announced a partnership with soft drink brand Coca Cola and unveiled the World Cup trophy.

"It is extremely difficult to pick a winner. Obviously India is playing really well. England has got their best ODI team in many years. South Africa has also performed. But the progress the Indian team has made in the recent years, it will be exceptionally difficult to beat them," the International Cricket Council (ICC) CEO told reporters here.

On being asked about the recently released ICC T20 World Cup groups, where arch-rivals India and Pakistan are placed in different groups, Richardson said: "We have arranged the groups in a way that has credibility, and is based on the rankings. We have several techniques one of them is called the Snake Method. Teams are placed according to their ranks and play each other accordingly."

"In this case Pakistan were number one in the rankings in their group and India number two. Obviously everyone likes to see them play but to maintain the integrity and credibility of the groups we found no credible way of putting them in the same group."

"Hopefully from a world perspective they will meet each other in the semi-finals or final," he added.

With the amnesty period given to whistleblowers to come out on corruption issues plaguing Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), ending on Thursday, Richardson said: "It's not just about anti corruption but also about player conduct. In recent times we have had several unruly incidents around the world and we have taken really firm steps there to make sure that everybody understands we need to protect the spirit of cricket."

"On the anti corruption side we have taken more proactive steps to disrupt the actions of certain frivolous individuals that wander around trying to fix cricket matches."

"In the past we have tried to do the right thing by taking steps against these individuals and now also we are trying to disrupt them as much as possible and the players are doing the right thing by reporting any incident," he concluded.