India set to clash against South Africa in their World Cup opener

India will play their inaugural match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 against South Africa on June 4. Though the venue has not been finalized but a BCCI source on the sidelines of the ICC meet being held in Kolkata on Tuesday confirmed that India will play their first match of the tournament against the Proteas.

New Delhi: India will play their inaugural match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 against South Africa on June 5. Though the venue has not been finalized but a BCCI source on the sidelines of the ICC meet being held in Kolkata on Tuesday confirmed that India will play their first match of the tournament against the Proteas.

It is expected that ICC will announce the complete schedule of the 2019 World Cup post the high-profile 5-day meet currently being held in Kolkata.

The next edition of the World Cup will be played in England and is scheduled to begin from May 30, 2019.

This time World Cup 2019 will feature 10 teams instead, a decrease from previous World Cups in 2011 and 2015 which featured 14 teams.

Afghanistan and West Indies recently qualified for the World Cup becoming ninth and tenth teams respectively for the quadrennial event.

England will be hosting the World Cup for the fifth time after hosting the first three editions in 1975, 1979 and 1983 as well as the 1999 tournament when matches were also played in Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

12 venues have been finalized to host 45 matches of the tournament. The format of the tournament will also see changes this time. Format used in 1992 Cricket World Cup will be once again used where the group stage will have all ten teams play each other in a single group. This means a total of 45 matches will be played with each team playing a total of nine matches. The top four teams from the group will then progress to the knockout stage.

Last World Cup which was held in 2015 was won by Australia in Melbourne against neighbours New Zealand. 2011 winners India got knocked out by Australia in the semis of the tournament.