ICC World Cup 2023 - An English Essay

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The 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup (also referred to as simply the 2023 Cricket World Cup) was the 13^th edition of the Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted from 5^th October to 19^th November 2023 across ten venues in India. The tournament was contested by ten national teams, maintaining the same format used in 2019.

BACKGROUND:
On 11^th December 2017. India was announced by the ICC as hosts of the 2023 Cricket World Cup; while India had served as s co-host during three previous tournaments (most recently in 201l, which it co-hosted with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh), it would mark the first Cricket World Cup to be hosted solely by India.

Originally, the competition was to be played from 9^th February to 26^th March 2023. In July 2020 it was announced that due to the disruption of the qualification schedule by the COVID-l9 pandemic, the start of the tournament would be delayed to October. The ICC released the tournament schedule on 27^th June 2023.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had threatened to boycott the tournament after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)refused to send a team to the 2023 Asia Cup scheduled in Pakistan. This issue was resolved in June 2023 after the Asian Cricket Council announced that the tournament would be hosted using a hybrid model proposed by the PCB, with nine of the 13 matches in the competition played in Sri Lanka.

This was the first ICC World cup in which penalties for slow over-rates were given to bowling sides if they did not complete their 50 overs in the stipulated time. On-field umpires could penalise the bowling team by not allowing more than four fielders outside the 30-yard circle.

QUALIFICATION:
Other than India, who qualified as hosts, all teams had to qualify for the tournament through the 2023 Cricket World Cup qualification process. Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa qualifies via the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League, with the Netherlands and Sri lanka securing the final two places via the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe June and July 2023.

As a result of qualifying process, the competition was the first not to include former winners West Indies, who failed to progress for the first time after their defeat to Scotland. Full members Ireland and Zimbabwe also missed out on qualification, meaning three of the four full members who took part in the knockout qualification stage did not qualify, with only Sri Lanka progressing. The final qualification spot was decided by an eliminator match between associate members Scotland and the Netherlands, with the Dutch side taking the final place.

VENUES:
The tournament took place in ten different stadiums, situated in ten different cities across India. The first and second semi-finals were held at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and Eden Gardens in Kolkata respectively, while the final took place at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The BCCI provided funding for renovations and refurbishment at stadiums. Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium received a new grass surface, drainage system, seating, and hospitality boxes. Wankhede Stadium had upgrades to the outfield, floodlights, corporate boxes, and toilets. M. A. Chidambaram Stadium installed new floodlights and relaid two wickets. With the autumn scheduling of this World Cup, the ICC instituted protocols for reducing the impact of moisture including dew and rain on pitch conditions, so that they did not give the team batting second an advantage (as had frequently occurred in the 2021 Men's 120 World Cup).

These included using a specific wetting agent, and the boundary set at around 70 m (77 yards) at each stadium, with more grass on the pitch to encourage seam bowling over spin bowling.

SQUADS:
All teams were asked to finalise their 15-player squads prior to 28 September, with any replacements after that date requiring approval from the ICC. All squads were announced by 26^th September 2023. The oldest player of the tournament was Dutch player Wesley Barresi, who was 39 years old, while the youngest was Afghan spinner Noor Ahmad, who was 18.

MATCH OFFICIALS:
Match officials for the 2023 Cricket World Cup were selected by the ICC’s umpire selection panel, headed by Sean Basey, the ICC's senior manager for umpires and referees. The panel selected 12 umpires to officiate at the tournament: three from Australia, four from England, four from Asia (one each from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), two each from New Zealand and South Africa and one from the West Indies. It also selected four match referees for the event.

WARM-UP MATCHES:
Warm~up matches were held from 29^th September to 3^rd October 2023 at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad, Assam Cricket Association Stadium in Guwahati, and Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram.

India’s warm-up fixtures were announced on 27^th June. The complete warm-up fixtures were announced on 23^th August. The matches were broadcast lives on televisions.

GROUP STAGE:
The ICC announced the World Cup schedule on 27^th June 2023 at an event in Mumbai with a countdown of 100 days to the opening match of the World Cup on 5^th October. The group stage started with the match between the finalists of the 2019 Cricket World Cup, New Zealand and England at Narendra Modi stadium. On 9^th August, nine fixtures including the match between India and Pakistan, were rescheduled by the ICC. The top seven teams in the tournament, excluding Pakistan who qualify automatically as host, qualified for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.

KNOCKOUT STAGE:
The host India was the first team to qualify for the semi-final after their 302-runs win against Sri Lanka, their seventh successive win in the World Cup. India secure the top place amongst the semi-finalists after they beat South Africa by 243 runs on 5^th November at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

South Africa became the second team to qualify for the semi-finals after Pakistan defeated New Zealand on 4^th November, with Australia becoming the third team to qualify after defeating Afghanistan on 7^th November. New Zealand confirmed their berth as the fourth team after Pakistan lost their final match against England.

In the knockout stage, India and Australia beat New Zealand and South Africa respectively to advance to the final, played on 19^th November at Narendra Modi Stadium.

A night before the final match Indian team was overconfident and rather practised for final boastfully the rehearsal to receive world cup as ICC World Cup Champion 2023. When Australian Captain Pat Cummins was asked how the Australians would cope with the vocal, pro-India crowd at Narendra Modi Stadium. “The crowd's obviously going to be very one-sided,” Cummins replied,

“Nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent”.

Fortune favour Australia and India was defeated so badly, that their crowd even really did not tolerate it and leave the stadium without giving any appreciation and celebration as a host country to the real ICC World Cup 2023 champion Australia, who won by 6 wickets, winning their sixth Cricket World Cup title.

Virat Kohli was the player of the tournament and also scored the most runs; Mohammed Shami was the leading wicket-taker. A total of 1,250,307 spectators attended matches, the highest number in any Cricket World Cup to-date. The tournament final set viewership records in India, with 518 million viewers, and a peak of 57 million streaming viewers.