Pakistan to play nine World Cup matches at only five venues

By Chris On Jun 27, 2023

Unlike other teams who have their league matches spread across most of the ten venues for the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, Pakistan will play their nine league matches in only five cities, according to the schedule released by the ICC and BCCI in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Pakistan begin their campaign by playing both qualifying teams in Hyderabad on October 6 and 12, before travelling to Ahmedabad to take on India on October 15. They then travel to Bengaluru to play Australia on October 20, and onward to Chennai where they play Afghanistan on October 23 and South Africa on October 27.

The PCB had requested the ICC to swap venues for their fixtures against Afghanistan and Australia (they wanted to play Afghanistan in Bengaluru and Australia in Chennai) a request that has not been granted.

Pakistan then head east to Kolkata for their fixture against Bangladesh on October 31 and back to Bengaluru for their match against New Zealand on November 4. Their final league match, which will take place on the last day of the league phase, is against England in Kolkata on November 12.

The World Cup schedule was finally released at an event in Mumbai just 100 days before the start of the tournament on October 5. In comparison, the fixtures for the 2019 World Cup in England and the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand were released more than 12 months in advance.

The tournament will be played across ten venues in India, with the semi-finals in Mumbai and Kolkata on November 15 and 16, and the final in Ahmedabad on November 19. The format will be the same as it was in 2019, with ten teams playing each other once in the league phase and the top four qualifying for the semi-finals.

Pakistan did not qualify for the semi-finals in 2019, finishing fifth in the league stage, level on points with eventual runners-up New Zealand and losing out on net run rate. They will gear up for the 2023 tournament in India with warm-up games between September 29 and October 3.

Despite the World Cup schedule being announced, there is still no official confirmation from Pakistan that they will travel to India. Due to strained political relations between the two countries, Pakistan have not toured India since the 2016 T20 World Cup. The latest word on the issue was that Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs was evaluating the team’s participation in the World Cup and would convey its view to the PCB in due course.

The World Cup will be contested by ten teams. India qualified for the event as hosts, while Afghanistan, Australia, England, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Pakistan, and South Africa made it by finishing in the top eight of the 2020-2023 World Cup Super League. The remaining two qualifiers will be identified at the ongoing World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe, which is being played by Sri Lanka, West Indies, Ireland, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, Scotland, UAE, USA, and Zimbabwe.

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