From the intricacies of net run rate to the weather at the venues and the likely winners, here’s our essential lowdown
Cricket World Cup, you say? Haven’t we just had one of those? You’re probably thinking of the one England won in 2022, or the one Australia won in 2021, and there’ll be another one in 2024, but those were and will be all in the Twenty20 format – 20 overs a side, to the uninitiated – while this one offers two-and-a-half times the fun with each innings lasting 50 overs. The last men’s World Cup in this format was way back in 2019. This one starts on 5 October and ends 46 giddy days later on 19 November.
Who’s involved? There are 10 teams: all but three of the International Cricket Council’s full member nations – the Test-playing countries – and one associate member. The missing trio are Ireland, Zimbabwe and West Indies, who won the first two World Cups, reached the final of the third and have never failed to qualify before. Only the top two in this year’s final qualifying round, played in Zimbabwe in June and July, made it to the finals and West Indies finished fifth in the Super Six stage, losing to everyone they faced except Oman. Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, the one associate nation, emerged from the pack, the former with a 100% record, the latter courtesy of a net run rate slightly better than Scotland’s and quite a lot better than Zimbabwe’s, all three sides having finished level on points.
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