The highlight of the cricketing world has got to be the Cricket World Cup. It is an international championship that is held every four years and is watched by millions of people around the world. The first Cricket World Cup was held in 1975 in England and each team played 60 overs.
In 1987 for the first time the World Cup was held outside of England and the overs were reduced to 50 rather than the original 60. Australia has won the World Cup three times in a row and is the first team to have done so.
The 2020 Cricket World Cup will be hosted by England and Wales and the dates have been set for 30 May to 14 July 2020. This will be the 12th edition of the World Cup, which is officially known as the ICC Cricket World Cup 2020. England and Wales withdrew from the hosting bid for the 2015 World Cup and it was held in Australia and New Zealand.
The first 2020 Cricket World Cup match will kick off at The Oval and the eagerly awaited final is to be held at Lord’s. This will be the fifth time the World Cup will be held in England and Wales. England and South Africa will open the World Cup on the 30 May 2020.
Matches will be hosted at various venues including Old Trafford, Edgbaston, Hampshire Bowl, Trent Bridge, Cardiff Wales Stadium, Headingley, County Ground Bristol, County Ground Taunton and the Riverside.
There will be ten teams from around the world and every team will play the other nine teams. The highest scoring four teams will then move on to the knockout stage of the Cup into the semi-finals and then onto the final.
There has been some criticism because there are only ten teams playing instead of the 12 test playing nations. In 2017 Ireland and Afghanistan were admitted. The 2020 World Cup will be the first where all the Test teams will not be playing. Scotland and United Arab Emirates have been eliminated so there will also be no Associate members playing.
Teams chosen include England, the hosts, seven teams in the ICC One Day International Rankings who automatically qualify and two other teams decided by the 2020 Cricket World Cup qualifier. The teams who will be playing in the 2020 World Cup are England, Australia, Bangladesh, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and West Indies.
Predicting the winner of the World Cup is not easy and there will probably be many new players to get used to. Betting is made much easier knowing which teams have qualified for the Cup and punters can look at how the various teams have performed throughout the season.
Their performance is a good indication of how ready they are for the World Cup. Many online betting in Australia sites will already have their odds available, and together with the standard bets, there are also various prop bets.