The 2023 ODI World Cup is all set to kick off on 5 October with a match between defending champions England and last edition’s runners-up New Zealand. The two teams will lock horns at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad to mark the beginning of the quadrennial championship event. Meanwhile, India will kick off their campaign against Australia, in all likelihood, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
The high-octane clash between India and Pakistan, however, will take place ten days after the tournament kicks off. India and Pakistan will square off against each other on 15 October (Sunday). The venue for the same is still under discussion with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) expressing its reservations over playing in Ahmedabad.
“Majorly, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is understood to be having reservations over playing the big game against India in Ahmedabad and that could be one of the reasons, it is being assumed, why Najam Sethi, the chairman of the PCB, visited the ICC office in Dubai over the last couple of days,” claimed the Cricbuzz report while revealing the tentative schedule of the tournament.
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The schedule is expected to be released after the conclusion of the sixteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) with the final scheduled for 28 May. “The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to come up with the schedule soon, most likely after the on-going Indian Premier League (IPL), after obtaining the formal approval from all concerned,” claimed the report.
Eight of ten teams decided
There will be ten teams participating in the ODI World Cup 2023. Out of these ten, eight have directly qualified while the rest two teams will be decided after a qualifying tournament in June-July in Zimbabwe. West Indies, Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Ireland, Nepal, Oman, Scotland, UAE and host Zimbabwe will battle it out for the last two spots.
The teams to have qualified include India, England, Australia, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Pakistan, South Africa, and Bangladesh, with South Africa being the latest to earn direct qualification.
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