The World Cup 2015 is getting closer by the day with less than 100 days to leave. Let us talk more about how the next year’s World Cup will be held?
The 2015 Cricket World Cup will feature 14 teams, divided into groups of 7 each, similar to the 2011 World Cup format. However, this time the World Cup will be held in Australia and New Zealand unlike Asia (except Pakistan) in 2011. Australia will host 26 matches while New Zealand will be the host for 23 matches. The final be held at the memorial Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
So, there are 2 groups consisting of 7 teams each which will play each other once and the top 4 from each group will qualify to the quarter finals. This gives every team an opportunity to play minimum 6 games irrespective of losing all of them. The format is made such so that the associate teams get a chance to play with the top guns.
The reason why the next year’s World Cup is different is that there will be no super over in case of a tied match either in the quarter finals or semi-finals or the finals.
In case of a tie in a quarter final or a semi-final, the group stage ranking will decide which team proceeds further, which I can recollect somewhat similar to the 1999 Cricket World Cup.
The era of the super eights or another group made in the quarter finals is gone. The knockout stage begins from the quarter final stage, similar to the 2011 World Cup, followed by semi-finals and the final.
Here are the groups:
The after group stage format:
In article Picture courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Cricket_World_Cup
Featured image courtesy: www.espncricinfo.com