2023 Cricket World Cup

13th edition of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup

8 min read

The 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup was the 13th edition of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted from 5 October to 19 November 2023 across ten venues in India. This was the fourth World Cup held in India, but the first where India was the sole host.

The tournament was contested by ten national teams, maintaining the same format used in 2019. After six weeks of round-robin matches, India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand finished as the top four and qualified for the knockout stage. In the knockout stage, India and Australia beat New Zealand and South Africa, respectively, to advance to the final, played on 19 November at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Australia beat India in the final by six wickets, winning their sixth Cricket World Cup title.

A total of 1,250,307 spectators attended the matches, the highest number in any Cricket World Cup to date. The tournament set viewership records in India, drawing 518 million viewers, with a peak of 59 million streaming viewers during the final, which alone recorded a record-breaking global audience of about 300 million viewers worldwide.

Background

Host selection

On 11 December 2017, India was announced by the ICC as hosts of the 2023 Cricket World Cup; while India had served as a co-host during three previous tournaments (most recently in 2011, which it co-hosted with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh), it would mark the first Cricket World Cup to be hosted solely by India.

COVID-19 pandemic

Originally, the competition was to be played from 9 February to 26 March 2023. In July 2020, it was announced that due to the disruption of the qualification schedule by the COVID-19 pandemic, the start of the tournament would be delayed to October 2023. The ICC released the tournament schedule on 27 June 2023.

Format

This was the first ICC World Cup in which penalties for slow over-rates were given to bowling teams 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.

Pakistan's participation

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.

Prize money

The ICC allocated a pool of US$10 million in prize money for the tournament, with payouts remaining the same as the 2019 and 2015 tournaments. Australia, the winning team, received US$4,000,000, the runner-up $2,000,000 and the losing semi-finalists $1,600,000. Teams that did not progress past the league stage received $100,000 and the winner of each league stage match received $40,000.

Marketing

The ICC hosted a trophy tour for 100 days prior to the tournament beginning 27 June 2023, with the Cricket World Cup Trophy being taken to various locations around the world. The event began with the launching of the trophy into the stratosphere by Sent Into Space and landing at Modi Stadium—becoming the first sports trophy to have ever been sent into space. The ICC officially announced the mascots for the World Cup in August. The mascots were a male and female duo named "Tonk" and "Blaze" from the fictional cricketing utopia "Crictoverse".

Ahead of the tournament, it was reported that an opening ceremony would take place on 4 October 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, a day before the opening match at the same venue. The official theme song of the 2023 Cricket World Cup titled "Dil Jashn Bole" (transl. Heart say celebrate) was released on 20 September. The song was composed by Pritam, and was sung by Pritam, Nakash Aziz, Sreerama Chandra, Amit Mishra, Jonita Gandhi, Akasa Singh and S. P. Charan. However, the song was subject to backlash and bad reviews. The opening ceremony was cancelled and replaced by a closing ceremony ahead of the final. During this a drone show was held.

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 qualified 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 during June and July 2023.

As a result of the 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 knock-out 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 team taking the final place.

Venues

The tournament took place in ten stadiums, situated in ten 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 refurbishments 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 T20 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 this date requiring approval from the ICC. All squads were announced by 26 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

Warm-up matches

Warm-up matches were held from 29 September to 3 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 June. The complete warm-up fixtures were announced on 23 August. The matches were broadcast live on television.

Group stage

The ICC announced the World Cup schedule on 27 June 2023 at an event in Mumbai with a countdown of 100 days to the opening match of the World Cup on 5 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 August 2023, 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.

Points table

Results

The ICC released the fixture details on 27 June 2023.

Knockout stage

The host India was the first team to qualify for the semi-finals after their 302-run win against Sri Lanka, their seventh successive win in the World Cup. India secured the top place amongst the semi-finalists after they beat South Africa by 243 runs on 5 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 November, with Australia becoming the third team to qualify after defeating Afghanistan on 7 November. New Zealand confirmed their berth as the fourth team after Pakistan lost their final match against England.