India to kick-off their 2019 World Cup campaign against South Africa on June 4 instead of June 2 as the BCCI will have to maintain a mandatory 15-day gap between IPL final and international assignment as per the Lodha Committee recommendation. The 2019 World Cup will be held in the UK from May 30 to July 14. The matter was discussed during the ICC Chief Executives Meeting on Tuesday at Kolkata.
“The 2019 IPL will be played between March 29 and May 19. But we need to maintain a 15-day gap and World Cup starts on May 30. Therefore as per 15 day gap we could have only played on June 4. Earlier, we were scheduled to start on June 2 but we couldn’t have played on that day,” a senior BCCI official said.
“South Africa are our first opponents. The CEC agreed and the matter has been referred to the ICC board,” he further added.
It was also confirmed that India will not play any Day/Night Test match for now.
“All matches in ICC World Test Championship are day matches played with red ball. If that’s the case, there is no point in playing pink ball Tests if it doesn’t help in preparation for World Test Championship,” he concluded.
