Who will rule the world ?

Zimbabwe missed the bus and it is the first time they won't be featuring in the cricket's biggest extravaganza since making their debut in 1983.

Mumbai : International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup has again gone back to England as it will be England and Wales who will be hosting the twelveth edition of the event. This will be the fifth time that England will be getting the chance of hosting the game's biggest show. Prior to this upcoming event, England hosted the 1975, '79, '83 and '99 world cups.

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A total of 10 teams will be participating in this world cup. This will be the first world cup where all the test status teams won't be featuring. Thereby the ICC Associate and Affiliate member nations also couldn't find a place. England, as hosts, automatically qualified. India, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, as seeded teams gained a direct entry. West Indies and Zimbabwe, being ranked 9th & 10th respectively in the ICC ODI rankings had to undergo a qualifying round. Zimbabwe hosted the bulk of the qualifying round matches including the final round. In the penultimate match, Zimbabwe went down to United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 3 runs and Afghanistan trounced league toppers West Indies in their last match and it was Afghanistan along with West Indies who qualified for the final stages.

Unlucky not make it into the finals

Zimbabwe, despite being the hosts, missed the bus and it is the first time they won't be featuring in the cricket's biggest extravaganza since making their debut in 1983.

Ireland, who have previously beaten Pakistan, West Indies and Zimbabwe in the world cup matches, expressed their anguish of being left out of the tournament.

Read : When a World Cup is dedicated to a Late cricketer

After the Pulwama attack, several Indian star cricketers along with Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) called for banning Pakistan from the event and India's forfeiture of Pakistan match, in case Pakistan plays. But ICC, in it's meetings, rejected BCCI appeals and announced that no forfeiture will be considered and that India have to play Pakistan. In this current scenario, how that match gets underway is a matter to see.

The umpires and the match referees who will be officiating the matches are :

Umpires

Australia Bruce Oxenford Paul Reiffel Rod Tucker Paul Wilson

India

• Sundaram Ravi

England

Umpire Ian Gould : last assignment

• Michael Gough
• Ian Gould
• Richard Illingworth
• Richard Kettleborough
• Nigel Llong

New Zealand

• Chris Gaffaney

Pakistan

• Aleem Dar

South Africa

• Marais Erasmus

Sri Lanka

• Kumar Dharmasena
• Ruchira Pallyaguruge

West Indies

• Joel Wilson

Referees

ICC also announced the name of6 match referees for the tournament.

• Chris Broad
• David Boon
• Jeff Crowe
• Ranjan Madugalle
• Andy Pycroft
• Ritchie Richardson

The ten teams will play each other in the round robin league format and the top four on the league table will advance to the last 4 (semi finals). Number 1 team will play number 4 in the first semis while number 2 & 3 will clash in the other semis. A photocopy of the 1992 edition.

Dramatis Personae :

• Afghanistan : Gulbadin Naib (c), Rashid Khan (vc), Aftab Alam, Asghar Afghan, Dawlat Zadran, Hamid Hassan, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Najibullah Zadran, Noor Ali Zadran, Rahmat Shah and Samiullah Shinwari
• Australia : Aaron Finch (c), Pat Cummins (vc), Alex Carey (wk), Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner and Adam Zampa
• Bangladesh : Mashrafe Mortaza (c), Shakib Al Hasan (vc), Tamim Iqbal, Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mahmudullah, Mohammad Mithun, Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Soumya Sarkar, Rubel Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mosaddek Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman and Abu Jayed
• England : Eoin Morgan (c), Jos Buttler (vc, wk), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood
• India :Virat Kohli (c). Rohit Sharma (vc). Shikhar Dhawan. K. L. Rahul. Vijay Shankar. MS Dhoni (wk). Kedar Jadhav . Dinesh Karthik. Yuzvendra Chahal. Kuldeep Yadav. Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Jasprit Bumrah. Hardik Pandya. Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami
• New Zealand : Kane Williamson (c), Tom Latham (vc, wk), Tim Southee, Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Colin Munro, James Neesham, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi and Ross Taylor
• Pakistan : Sarfaraz Ahmed (c, wk), Babar Azam (vc) , Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Shadab Khan, Shoaib Malik, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hasnain, Shaheen Afridi and Wahab Riaz
• South Africa : Faf du Plessis (c), Quinton de Kock (vc, wk), Hashim Amla, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, JP Duminy, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Chris Morris, Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi
• Sri Lanka : Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Dhananjaya de Silva (vc), Angelo Mathews, Avishka Fernando, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Kusal Perera, (wk), Thisara Perera, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay, Jeevan Mendis, Milinda Siriwardana, Lasith Malinga, Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep
• West Indies : Jason Holder (c), Chris Gayle (vc), Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Fabian Allen, Shannon Gabriel, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Evin Lewis, Ashley Nurse, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Kemar Roach, Andre Russell and Oshane Thomas