ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 Review. Schedule, History, Favorites, and Prediction

India is the host nation of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. The event takes place in 10 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Dharamshala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Kolkata.

The English nation is the current cricket champion – as they won a thrilling final vs New Zealand in 2019, however in this year’s group stage, they fell apart. The tournament will last between the 5th of October and the 19th of November.

It features the best cricket teams like India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Bangladesh, and England. The winner of the 10-team tournament earns 4 million US dollars. The 2023 WC edition distributes the same amount of funds as the previous tournament in 2019, which also awarded 4 million US dollars. It is an increase on the 2015 tournament – two editions prior – which saw $3.75m awarded to the winner, $1.75m to the runner-up, and $600,000 to the losing semi-finalists.

History of Cricket World Cup

The final tournament is organized every four years, with preliminary qualification rounds leading to it. The tournament is one of the most viewed sporting events and is the pinnacle championship of cricket. The first Cricket World Cup contest takes us to England. However, Australia, England, and South Africa were the first teams that played against each other in a triangular tournament of test matches in 1912.

The current WC format involves a qualification phase, which takes place over the preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase. In the tournament phase, ten teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation, compete for the title at venues within the host nation over about a month. The organizers wanted to change the format to accommodate an expanded 14-team final competition for the next 2027 tournament. Throughout the history, only twenty teams have competed on this level. Australia has won the tournament five times, India and West Indies twice, while Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and England have won it once. The best performance in the history by a non-full-member team is when Kenya made it to the semi-finals in 2003. England are the current champions after winning the 2019 Cricket World Cup edition. Here is the list of winners:

West Indies – 1975
West Indies (2) – 1979
India – 1983
Australia – 1987
Pakistan – 1992
Sri Lanka – 1996
Australia (2) – 1999, Australia (3) – 2003, Australia (4) – 2007
India (2) – 2011
Australia (5) – 2015
England – 2019

South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia are the subsequent 2027 WC hosts. As the tournament progresses and we are getting closer to the final day – there is a necessity to check out the upcoming schedule.

Tournament Schedule

Teams already played 40 matches – eight more to go as the tournament consists of 48 games. Eight remaining fixtures in Cricket World Cup 2023 India:

• South Africa vs. Afghanistan
• Australia vs. Bangladesh
• England vs. Pakistan
• India vs. Netherlands
• Semi-final 1 – 1st vs. 4th, 15th of November
• Semi-final 2 – 2nd vs 3rd, 16th of November
• Grand Final – 19th of November

Cricket WC 2023 Current Situation

The hosts and South Africa have secured the top four spots, sitting on 16 and 12 points accordingly, while the fight for the 2nd place is hot.  The Proteas have 12 points, and Australia is in the third spot with the same amount of points. Nevertheless, all the attention now shifts to the other two semi-finals vacancies, with six teams still mathematically in the race. Reigning champions England and Bangladesh lost six games and are already out.

After beating Afghanistan, Australia won their sixth consecutive game and secured the spot in the semi-finals. Australia avoided finishing fourth in the standings because they did not want to fight against the undefeated Indians in the next round. In the semis, they most likely will fight against the South African flank, who have a horrible record in the World Cup knockout stage.

Cricket World Cup 2023 Favorites and Prediction

Evidently, India is the favourite to win the title, but things that happened in 2019 might occur again. England won, even though they came only in the third position. Due to the lack of resilience and with two matches to go, they are already out of contention. In the last World Cup, in 2019, team Australia lost to the current world champions England, and it looks like they are following those same footsteps. They probably re going to fight against South Africa.  If we compare this edition to 2019, when both teams that were able to reach the first two positions did not make it to the final – it shows that you cannot predict anything in advance.

The most exciting part of this tournament is New Zealand. If they stay in the fourth position – they will face India in the semi-finals. This battle would be another clash for the history books. Both teams fought four years ago, and New Zealand managed to find a way to secure a spot in the grand finale. Indians are safe and can start scouting their upcoming opponent, but the biggest question is – can the host nation win it again?

Indian cricket star Virat Kohli is one of the biggest international stars. The batting superstar V. Kohli is a sensation, both on and off the cricket field. To give an indication of the scale of his stardom, Virat Kohli is the most followed Indian person on Instagram. He has 263 million followers, and it is nearly three times more than the famous actress Priyanka Chopra.

Possible Cricket World Cup 2023 Challengers

Referring to the possibilities of other teams, Sri Lanka still has the chance to go through. They  have to beat New Zealand, but they need a miracle to progress beyond the group stage. Their fate is out of their hands, and Sri Lanka will rely on every result falling in their favour. On the contrary, the Netherlands have four points, and it is not enough to go through. New Zealand, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are the teams that will fight until the last gasp of air.

The Afghans, who have won four out of their eight group-stage matches, needed to defeat Australia in order to improve chances to go through – but Afghanistan lost. The last opponent is South Africa, and it will be even harder to reach the semi-final. Because of their poor net runs rate, one win might not be enough, however, it does not sound promising when you must beat two top-four teams to change the flow of the tournament. Despite losing, Afghanistans’s Ibrahim Zadran made history by becoming the first Afghan player to score a century in World Cup history, a remarkable feat against the formidable Australian team.

New Zealand and Pakistan have eight points, and they will keep an eye on each other’s last group-stage match over the coming days. The Black Caps, who will face Sri Lanka on Thursday, are ahead of Pakistan by 0.362 on net run rate. Pakistan will have the advantage of knowing the exact margin they will need to defeat England by to qualify for the semi-finals. The margin depends on New Zealand’s result against Sri Lanka. If New Zealand wins by a large margin, things will become more problematic for Pakistan. Make sure to check out the 7bet blog to find other sports topics.

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