India’s campaign in next year’s ODI World Cup was supposed to start on 2nd June. But in order to maintain a mandatory 15 day gap between the final match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the start of international commitments, the Men in Blue will now start their World Cup from 5th June instead. The gap is one of the several restrictions placed on the BCCI by the Supreme Court appointed Lodha Committee.
A senior BCCI official told Press Trust of India on Tuesday, “The 2019 IPL will be played between March 29 and May 19. But we need to maintain a 15-day gap and World Cup starts on May 30. Therefore as per 15 day gap we could have only played on June 4. Earlier, we were scheduled to start on June 2 but we couldn’t have played on that day.”
“South Africa are our first opponents. The CEC agreed and the matter has been referred to the ICC board,” he further added. The matter was discussed during the International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executives Meeting in Kolkata on Tuesday.
The World Cup is scheduled top be held in England and Wales from 30th May to 14th July 2019. India will be playing Pakistan on 16th June in a group match as has already been announced yesterday. It should be noted that the ICC is supposed to reveal the full schedule of the World Cup 2019 within April 30.