Defending champions India will face off against long-time rivals Pakistan on 15 February, while World Cup co-hosts Australia and New Zealand have been drawn in the same group for the 2015 tournament, officials said yesterday.
Australia and New Zealand will be the joint hosts for this Cup, with the final to be played at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The first match of the prestigious one-day tournament will be held in Christchurch, the New Zealand city devastated by an earthquake in 2011, when the locals take on Sri Lanka on February 14.
ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 cricket Tournament will start on Feb 14, 2015 in Australia, New Zealand.
The last match of the tournament will be held on Mar 29, 2015.
The day-night final match will be at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 29.
Australia and New Zealand are grouped with England, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and two qualifiers.
Title-holders India are pooled with Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland and one other qualifying team.
The top four sides from each pool will go through to the knockout stage.
Forty-nine matches will be played in 14 venues across the two host nations, with Australia staging 26 games at grounds in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
New Zealand will host 23 games in seven cities, including Christchurch where international cricket is set to return for the first time since the 6.3-magnitude quake which killed 185 people in 2011.
Other New Zealand cities to host games are Auckland, Dunedin, Hamilton, Napier, Nelson and Wellington.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who launched the tournament in Melbourne, said the contest would likely be watched by a global television audience of one billion.
“When it comes to 2015, I don’t think you’re going to be able to keep anyone away,” Rudd said.
“This is going to be a great, great world series.”
Cricket World Cup 2015 Pools are given below:
Pool A England, Australia (co-host), Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, New Zealand (co-host), Qualifier 2 (TBD), Qualifier 3 (TBD)
Pool B South Africa, India, Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Qualifier 1 (Ireland), Qualifier 4 (TBD)
Fixtures for the cricket World Cup that will be jointly held by Australia and New Zealand from Feb. 14-March 29, 2015:
good to get that…………