Schedule for ICC U19 World Cup 2020 announced
ICC has announced the complete fixture list for the U19 World Cup 2020 to be played in South Africa from January 17th 2020.
Hosts South Africa will play Afghanistan in the opening fixture of next year’s ICC U19 Cricket World Cup, according to the International Cricket Council.
South Africa, hosts in 1998 and champions in 2014, play their opening match at the Diamond Oval in Kimberley on 17 January. They will also have to compete against group members United Arab Emirates and Canada in the 16-team tournament, the final of which is scheduled for 9 February.
In other matches slated over the first few days, New Zealand take on Japan who will be making their debut in an ICC global event at the North West University Oval In Potchefstroom on 18 January while defending champions India play Sri Lanka at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein on 19 January.
Nigeria, who are also making their ICC event debut will face Australia in Kimberley on 20 Jan for their opening game.
Benoni and Kimberley are the other host cities for the 13th edition of the tournament, being played as per the format used in previous editions, with the second phase dividing the teams into Super League and Plate tournaments. The top two teams from each of the four groups advance to the Super League while the remaining teams feature in the Plate championship.
JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom will host two Super League quarterfinals, both semi-finals and the final.
The top 11 full Members in the last edition in New Zealand and the five regional champions, who have qualified for the event, will also play warm-up matches from 12-15 January in Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Nigeria (Africa) also make an appearance for the first time along with Japan (East Asia Pacific) and are joined by other regional qualifiers Canada (Americas), United Arab Emirates (Asia) and Scotland (Europe).
Some of the world’s finest cricketers earned their striped by participating inprevious editions of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup including top-ranked Test batsman Steve Smith, top-ranked ODI batsman Virat Kohli, England Test captain Joe Root, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and Pakistan's newly appointed T20 captain Babar Azam.
Groupings:
Group A: India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Japan
Group B: Australia, England, West Indies, Nigeria
Group C: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Scotland
Group D: Afghanistan, South Africa, UAE, Canada
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