ICC World Cup 2019: All you need to know about teams, format, venues

The multi-nation event which happens every four years is seen as the pinnacle of ODI cricket, where each nation dreams to bring back laurels to their respective nation by lifting the coveted World Cup trophy.

Cricket fans across the world are all set for an absolute treat as the ICC World Cup, the premier one day International tournament will get underway from tomorrow in the United Kingdom. The ICC World Cup will witness the strongest one day international  teams around the world competing against each other at the biggest stage in a battle to emerge as world champions of the sport in the 50-over format. The multi-nation event which happens every four years is seen as the pinnacle of ODI cricket, where each nation dreams to bring back laurels to their respective nation by lifting the coveted World Cup trophy. So here is all you need to know about the 2019 ICC World Cup: 12th EDITION OF THE WORLD CUP  The 2019 ICC World Cup is the twelfth edition of the World Cup since the inception of the premier multi-nation tournament in 1975. The first Cricket World Cup tournament was held in 1975 where West Indies emerged as the champions. ENGLAND HOSTING TOURNAMENT FOR RECORD FIFTH TIME The ICC World Cup is being hosted for a record fifth time in the United Kingdom. England hosted the inaugural edition of the World Cup in 1975, besides hosting the showpiece event in 1979, 1983 and 1999. England and Wales are co-hosting the 12th edition of the ICC World Cup. 10 NATIONS ARE PARTICIPATING IN 2019 WORLD CUP 10 teams are participating in the 2019 ICC World Cup. While hosts England secured an automatic berth, the top seven teams in the ICC One Day International rankings as of 30 September 2017 earned automatic qualification to the show piece event at the UK. The teams which have qualified for the World Cup are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies and hosts England. It was for the very first time that a qualification tournament was held to decide on the final two spots in the World Cup. Bangladesh and West Indies clinched the top two spots in the ICC World Cup Qualifier tournament held in Zimbabwe and secured the final two qualification berths for the tournament. 2019 World Cup shall be for the first time when at least one Test playing nation shall be missing from the premier tournament. Ireland, Zimbabwe won’t be playing in the tournament. ICC 2019 WORLD CUP  SHALL BE PLAYED ACROSS 11 VENUES  The tournament shall be played from May 30th to July 14 across 11 venues in England and Wales. While 10 of the venues fall in England, one is located in Wales. The venues are as follows - Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Cardiff, Lord's , Leeds, Taunton, Southampton and Chester-le-Street and the Oval. In all, 48 matches shall be played out between the 10 participants in World Cup in a span of 46 days. Round Robin and Knockout Format There is no group format in the World Cup for the first time since the 1992 World Cup . All the teams shall play against each other in a round robin format and the top four teams with the highest number of wins shall secure a berth in the semi-finals. FINALS SHALL BE PLAYED IN LORD'S CRICKET GROUND AT LONDON  The finals of the 2019 Cricket World Cup shall be played at the historic Lord's Stadium in London on the 14th of July. It will be for the record fifth time that the historic Lord's stadium at London shall be the venue for the grand finale of the World Cup.