No opening ceremony to be held for 2023 World Cup: Reports
There will be no opening ceremony for the 2023 ICC ODI Men’s World Cup, which will get underway on October 5. There will, however, be a 'Captains' Day' event, which will feature skippers of all 10 teams - photo-op and press conference - at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, October 4.
The 2023 ODI World Cup will begin with a rematch of the 2019 final between England and New Zealand in Ahmedabad. The last time the event was held in the sub-continent, in 2011, a opening ceremony was conducted in Dhaka.
According to a report in the Times of India, unlike some claims in the media, there were no plans made to have an opening ceremony for the upcoming tournament.
"There was never an opening ceremony planned for the World Cup. I can confirm that. In the case of the IPL, you can have a short opening ceremony, as the match starts in the evening. Here, the match starts in the afternoon," a source was quoted as telling the paper.
The 2023 ODI World Cup will feature 10 teams. A total of 48 matches will be played across 10 venues in India. After a round-robin league stage in which each team will face the other nine once, the top four sides will qualify for semi-finals.
The first semi-final will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on November 15 and the second at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on November 16. The final will be held at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on November 19.
World Cup 2023 warm-up matches round up
Before the main event, the teams featured in some warm-matches. Unfortunately, both of India’s practice games were washed out due to rain. They were scheduled to take on England in Guwahati on September 30 and Netherlands in Thiruvananthapuram on October 3. Not a single ball was bowled in either of the two matches.
Pakistan battled in the warm-up round, losing both their matches. They went down to New Zealand by five wickets and to Australia by 14 runs in high-scoring games. Sri Lanka went down to Bangladesh in their first warm-up match before beating Afghanistan by six wickets in the second match.
As for South Africa, their match against Afghanistan in Thiruvananthapuram was abandoned without a ball being bowled. In their next game, they lost to New Zealand by seven runs (DLS method).