Cricket World Cup, which is one of the major international cricket championships, takes place at four-year intervals. It is the premier contest in the one-day form of cricket and one of the most-watched sporting events the world over. Bracing for the current World Cup 2019, the Pakistani cricket fans are eagerly looking forward to the super exciting event. As charged up as ever, our local crowds would be thronging their TV lounges. The more ardent and affluent ones would plan on occupying the stadium seats itself. Our Pakistani crowd is just crazy when it comes to watching, playing or appreciating the nationwide famous sport. The game fans have invented their own tennis ball format of this bat-and-ball affair.
The Birth Of World Cup Tournament
We can trace back the beginning of the World Cup championship to 1975, a time when the one-days comprised 60 overs a side. The first ICC World Cup (officially called the Prudential Cup) was in 1975, with England as the host. Since then, the international tournaments have been organized in various cricket playing nations. The 60-over trend continued in three consecutive tournaments, up to 1983. The 4th one in 1987 saw a reduction in the number of maximum overs per inning to 50, which continues to date. Since their inception, the World Cup competitions have witnessed scores of alterations in their gaming rules and regulations. Underlying the periodic modifications is their global governing body, the ICC (International Cricket Council).
World Cup 1992 Team Captains: The Trophy Flights Into Pakistan!
Source: ESPNcricinfo.com
Some Amusing All-time World Cup Trivia
It is interesting to note that the international cricketing event has never been deficient in producing all sorts of records, both in and off the field. Let’s turn over some of the history pages to relish the past glory.
- Out of all participating nations, Australia holds a unique record of walking away with the trophy five times, the highest so far.
- The rest of the World Cup recipients include West Indies (twice), India (twice), Sri Lanka (once) and Pakistan (once).
- England is the only nation which has hosted the most number of World Cups, totaling 4.
- The 1992 World Cup stands out unique in quite a few aspects. It was the first ever tournament where white balls were used, day and night games were played with colorful outfits.
- Sachin Tendulkar of India, the highest run-getter (top scorer) in the World Cup history, has piled up 2,278 runs in 6 World Cups.
- Glenn McGrath of Australia, the highest wicket-taker in the history of World Cups, stands at 72 unbeaten.
- The highest score in a World Cup is 433-5 in India vs Bermuda match in 2007. The lowest is a mere 36 between Canada and Sri Lanka in 2003.
- In the 2003 event, Australia became the only team so far in history to remain undefeated throughout the entire tournament.
And, we saved the best one for the last:
- The only person to have played both World Cup Football and World Cup Cricket is Sir Viv Richards. He played for Antigua at football and West Indies at cricket.
Related reading: Some of the Most Beautiful Pakistan Vs. India Cricket Moments That Will Make You Smile
The World Cup 2019 Summed Up
The Cricket World Cup 2019 is surely going to be a ground-breaking event, eventually turning into a full-fledged festival. As the contest progresses into a more sporting fervor, we are to anticipate more colors as an add-on to it. We resort to in the below section a quick lookup guide to the upcoming fabulous global cricket galore. So, why stay behind when all required pre-championship info can be had right here?
The Participating Teams
In all, 10 teams would be contesting in the event. These include Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and West Indies. The group stage format is a round-robin, where all ten teams play each other once, in a single group. This implies that 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 progress to the knockout stage.
ICC World Cup 2019 Teams: Adventure And Excitement Reloaded!
Source: The Viral News
The Individual Squads Ready For Action
The 15-member squad lineup of each contesting team appears as follows:
- Team Afghanistan
The young and determined playing squad consists of Gulbadin Naib (C), Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Noor Ali Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Asghar Afghan, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shinwari, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Hamid Hassan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
- Team Australia
The playing members of one the strongest sides include Aaron Finch (C), Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, *Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa.
- Team Bangladesh
The young and talented playing side comprises Mashrafe Mortaza (C), Abu Jayed, Liton Das (wk), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Mohammad Mithun (wk), Mohammad Saifuddin, Mosaddek Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Tamim Iqbal.
- Team England
The host team’s playing 15 are Eoin Morgan (C), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jos Buttler (wk), Tom Curran, Joe Denly, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
World Cup 2019 Captains At A Glance: Equally Eager To Emerge Exquisitely!
Source: Kyrosports
- Team India
One of the favorite sides, their strength lies with Virat Kohli (C), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Vijay Shankar, Rohit Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav.
- Team New Zealand
The Kiwi’s have recently displayed a good show in the past few months and hope to see it through successfully with Kane Williamson (C), Tom Blundell (wk), Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (wk), Colin Munro, Jimmy Neesham, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.
Team Pakistan!
Our green shirts would be playing all prepared to bring home the trophy through exemplary performances of Sarfaraz Ahmed (C & wk), Abid Ali, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Shoaib Malik.
- Team South Africa
The all too resilient and robust African side features nearly all qualities of a winning side owing to the services of Faf du Plessis (C), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), JP Duminy, Aiden Markram, David Miller, *Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Rassie van der Dussen.
- Team Sri Lanka
The team’s recent lackluster performance in several series in a row shouldn’t bog down their players which include Dimuth Karunaratne (C), Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera (wk), Thisara Perera, Nuwan Pradeep, Dhananjaya de Silva, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay.
- Team West Indies
The “Black Hurricane” would definitely be looking to regain their lost glory with the help of Jason Holder (C), Fabian Allen, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Shannon Gabriel, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope (wk), Evin Lewis, Ashley Nurse, Nicholas Pooran, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas.
An Exotic View Of The Lords Pavilion: Place Worthy Of Final Smackdown!
Source: standard.co.uk
ICC World Cup 2019 Tidbits At A Glance
Some of the minor facts and figures for the upcoming competition might be of interest to you. Let’s scavenge through some of these.
- England would be the hosting the event, their 4th time since the tournament history.
- The Final showdown would commence at Lords Stadium in London.
- The schedule runs from 30th May 2019 through to 14th July, in all 46 fun-filled days.
- Star Sports has won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 official TV broadcasting rights.
- The remaining ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 tickets are now on general sale via the official ticketing website.
