ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 in Australia, New Zealand
Feb 14 - Mar 29 2015The 11th edition of the World Cup Cricket in 2015 will be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The location of the games will be evenly split, with the day-night final match to be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 29.
India, who won the 2011 event when they defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets in the final in Mumbai, are pooled with Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland and one other qualifying team. They will start their title defence against traditional rivals Pakistan in Adelaide on February 15. Australia and New Zealand are grouped with England, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and two qualifiers. The top four sides from each pool will go through to the knockout stage.
The hosting rights were awarded at the same time as those of the 2011 Cricket World Cup, which New Zealand and Australia had originally bidded to host, and the 2019 Cricket World Cup. That tournament was awarded to four Asian Test cricket playing countries India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in a 10 to 3 vote. The International Cricket Council were sufficiently impressed with the trans-tasman bid that it was decided to award the next world cup to them.
Forty Nine matches will be played in 14 venues across the two host nations, with Australia staging 26 games at grounds in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney and New Zealand hosting 23 games in seven cities. The first match will be held in Christchurch, the New Zealand city devastated by an earthquake in 2011, when the hosts take on Sri Lanka on February 14.
Group A:
- Australia (co-host)
- Bangladesh
- England
- New Zealand (co-host)
- Sri Lanka
- Qualifier 2 (TBD)
- Qualifier 3 (TBD)
Group B:
- India
- Pakistan
- South Africa
- West Indies
- Zimbabwe
- Qualifier 1 (Ireland)
- Qualifier 4 (TBD)