The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament was hosted between 30 May and 14 July across 10 venues in England and a single venue in Wales. It was the fifth time that England had hosted the World Cup, and the third time matches had been played in Wales.

The tournament was contested by 10 teams, a decrease from 14 teams in the previous edition, with the format of the tournament changing to a single round-robin group with the top four teams qualifying through to the knockout stage. After six weeks of round-robin matches, which saw four games not have a result, India, Australia, England, and New Zealand finished as the top four, with Pakistan missing out on net run rate.

In the knockout stage, England and New Zealand won their respective semi-finals to qualify for the final, which was played at Lord's in London. The final ended in a tie after the match ended with both teams scoring 241 runs, followed by the first Super Over in an ODI; England won the title, their first, on the boundary countback rule after the Super Over also finished level. The total attendance throughout the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was 752,000. Overall, videos of the group stages amassed over 2.6 billion views from around the world, making it the most-watched cricket competition

Hosting The hosting rights were awarded in April 2006, after England and Wales withdrew their bid to host the 2015 Cricket World Cup, which was played in Australia and New Zealand. It was the fifth Cricket World Cup played in England, following the 1975, 1979, 1983 and 1999 World Cups. Wales also hosted matches at the 1983 and 1999 tournaments, the latter also seeing matches played in Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Qualification

The 2019 World Cup featured 10 teams, a decrease from previous World Cups in 2011 and 2015, which each featured 14 teams. The hosts (England) and the top seven other teams in the ICC One Day International rankings on 30 September 2017 earned an automatic qualification. Results from 19 September 2017 confirmed that these teams were Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka. The remaining two spots were decided by the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier.

At the time of the announcement of the qualification structure, ICC Associate and Affiliate Members, who were guaranteed four spots in the previous two World Cup tournaments, could now only be represented by at most two teams, and possibly none at all if they were beaten by the lowest-ranked Full Members in the Qualifier. It also meant that at least two of the ten Test-playing nations at the time of the announcement would have to play in the qualifying tournament, and could miss the World Cup finals entirely. Thus, this was the first World Cup to be contested without all of the Full Member nations being present.

The final stage of the tournament was a "Super Six" group, from which the top two teams qualified for the 2019 World Cup. The West Indies were guaranteed a spot after defeating Scotland in the penultimate round. Afghanistan joined them after defeating Ireland in the final over of their match. This was the first time since 1983 that Zimbabwe had failed to qualify for a World Cup. Ireland also missed the competition for the first time since 2007, and, for the first time, no Associate nation participated.

Means of qualificationDateVenueBerthsQualifiedHost nation30 September 2006 —1ICC ODI Championship30 September 2017Various72018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier23 March 2018Zimbabwe2Total10

Venues The fixture list for the tournament was released on 26 April 2018 after the completion of an ICC meeting in Kolkata, India. London Stadium had been named as a possible venue in the planning stages, and in January 2017, the ICC completed an inspection of the ground, confirming that the pitch dimensions would be compliant with the requirements to host ODI matches. However, when the fixtures were announced, London Stadium was not included as a venue. All of the venues used are in England except for Sophia Gardens, which is in Wales. The final was scheduled for 14 July 2019 at Lord's in London.

BirminghamBristolCardiffChester-le-StreetEdgbastonBristol County GroundSophia GardensRiverside GroundCapacity: 25,000Capacity: 17,500Capacity: 15,643Capacity: 17,000Matches: 5 (including semi-final)Matches: 3Matches: 4Matches: 3LeedsLondonHeadingleyLord'sThe OvalCapacity: 18,350Capacity: 30,000Capacity: 25,500Matches: 4Matches: 5 (including final)Matches: 5ManchesterNottinghamSouthamptonTauntonOld TraffordTrent BridgeRose BowlCounty GroundCapacity: 26,000Capacity: 17,500Capacity: 25,000Capacity: 12,500Matches: 6 (including semi-final)Matches: 5Matches: 5Matches: 3

Squads

All the participating teams had to submit the names of their respective World Cup squads by 23 April 2019. The teams were allowed to change players in their 15-man squad anytime up to seven days before the start of the tournament. New Zealand was the first team to announce their World Cup squad. The oldest player of the tournament was South African player Imran Tahir, who was 40 years old, while the youngest was Afghan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who was 18.

Match officials

In April 2019, the ICC named the officials for the tournament, 16 umpires and six match referees. Ian Gould announced that he would retire as an umpire following the conclusion of the tournament.

Prize money The International Cricket Council declared a total prize money pool of US$10 million for the tournament, the same as the 2015 edition. England, the winning team, received US$4,000,000, the runner-up $2,000,000 and the losing semi-finalists $800,000. Teams that did not progress past the league stage received $100,000 and the winner of each league stage match received $40,000.

Warm-up matches Before the World Cup, the participating nations competed in 10 warm-up matches, which were played from 24 to 28 May 2019. These matches did not have either One Day International (ODI) status or List A status as teams were allowed to field all 15 members of their squad.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony took place on The Mall in central London during the evening of 29 May 2019, a day before the start of the World Cup. Andrew Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness and Shibani Dandekar hosted the event. Prior to the opening ceremony, the 10 captains met at Buckingham Palace where they were greeted by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Harry. A 60-second challenge took place among the 10 participating 'teams', with each team represented by two guest figures, including Viv Richards, Anil Kumble, Mahela Jayawardene, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Kevin Pietersen, Farhan Akhtar, Malala Yousafzai, Yohan Blake, Damayanthi Dharsha, Azhar Ali, Abdur Razzak, Jaya Ahsan, James Franklin and Steven Pienaar, while David Boon was the umpire for the game. England won the game by scoring 74 points, and Australia came second with 69 points.

Michael Clarke, who captained Australia to the title in 2015, took the World Cup trophy to the stage, accompanied by former England spin bowler Graeme Swann. The ceremony concluded with the official World Cup song, "Stand By", performed by Loryn and Rudimental.

Group stage

The initial stage of the tournament saw the 10 teams grouped together for a single round-robin, in which each team played the other nine once for a total of 45 matches. Teams earned two points for a win and one for a tie or no-result (a minimum of 20 overs per side was needed to constitute a result). Matches in this stage had no reserve day set aside in the event of bad weather. After four games in seven days were rained off and complaints were made about the lack of reserve days, the ICC chief executive, Dave Richardson, said that trying to include reserve days "would significantly increase the length of the tournament and practically would be extremely complex to deliver".

The top four teams from the group stage progressed to the knockout stage. If teams were tied on points, then the number of wins and then the net run rate was used to separate them. A similar format was previously used in the 1992 Cricket World Cup, though that tournament featured nine teams instead of ten.

Following the 2019 Pulwama attack, several former Indian players and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) called for the boycott of the group match fixture between India and Pakistan. They also wanted to have the Pakistan team banned from playing in the tournament. However, after conducting a board meeting in Dubai, the ICC rejected the BCCI's proposal and confirmed that the scheduled match would go ahead as planned, at Old Trafford in Manchester, despite the ongoing standoff between the two nations.

Points table

Summary Week 1

The tournament began on 30 May at The Oval in London, between the host nation, England, and South Africa. England batted first and, despite losing their first wicket to the second ball of the tournament, went on to score 311/8, with Ben Stokes top-scoring with 89 runs. South Africa were bowled out for 207, following a collapse of eight wickets for 78 runs, to give England a victory by 104 runs. The next three matches were one-sided: in the first, the West Indies bowled Pakistan out for just 105, which was the lowest score of the tournament. The target of 106 was chased down in only 13.4 overs, the quickest successful run chase in the tournament. The first double-header of the group stage saw comfortable wins for New Zealand and Australia, as they won by 10 and 7 wickets respectively over Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

At The Oval, in the fifth match of the group stage, Bangladesh made their highest score in an ODI, with 330/6. Mushfiqur Rahim top-scored for Bangladesh with 78, as he and Shakib Al Hasan had a 142-run partnership for the third wicket. In reply, the South Africans could not sustain a partnership with wickets falling regularly throughout their innings. Mustafizur Rahman took three wickets for Bangladesh as South Africa fell short by 22 runs. The following day saw Pakistan cause an upset over one of the tournament favourites, as they beat England by 14 runs at Trent Bridge. This was despite Joe Root (107) and Jos Buttler (103) both scoring centuries in the chase, as they became the first and second batsmen to score hundreds at the tournaments.

In Cardiff, three wickets in five balls from Afghanistan's Mohammad Nabi provided the catalyst for a Sri Lankan collapse, as they fell from 144/1 to 201 all out. Kusal Perera top-scored for Sri Lanka with 78, while Nabi took another wicket to finish with four for the innings. After rain reduced Afghanistan's innings to 41 overs, they were unable to reach the revised target of 187 as they lost by 34 runs. Najibullah Zadran top-scored for Afghanistan with 43, while Sri Lanka's Nuwan Pradeep took four wickets. Wednesday saw a double-header being played at the Rose Bowl and The Oval. At the Rose Bowl, India started their campaign with a six-wicket win over South Africa. Yuzvendra Chahal took four wickets as he helped restrict the batsmen to a total of 227. In reply, Rohit Sharma scored 122 not out to help India chase the target with 15 balls to spare. The other match on the Wednesday saw Bangladesh give New Zealand a scare, as the Black Caps went from 160/2 to 191/5 chasing 245, before getting home with three overs to spare. Ross Taylor top-scored for New Zealand with 82, while Matt Henry was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets.

Week 2