Cricket World Cup - History, format and favourites

The 2023 Cricket World Cup will run from 5 October to 19 November in India.

Here's what you need to know about the biggest tournament in cricket.

Decades of history

The first World Cup was played in England in 1975, just four years after the first one day international cricket match was played.

The first few tournaments were played with 60 overs per team, players in whites and red balls.

Eight teams were involved in the inaugural tournament, the six test-playing nations at the time, along with Sri Lanka and a composite team from East Africa.

The tournament was played outside of England for the first time in 1987, when India and Pakistan hosted. The overs dropped to 50 per team for these games.

In 1992, the tournament in Australia and New Zealand introduced coloured clothing, white balls, day and night games, and fielding restrictions. After the end of apartheid, South Africa was added to the teams, increasing the participants to nine.

The number of teams involved increased to 12 in 1996 and 16 in 2007, before reducing to 14 in 2011 and 10 in 2019.

Past winners

The West Indies dominated the game in the seventies, with Gordon Greenidge, Alvin Kallicharran, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Colin Croft in their line-up.

The West Indies won in 1975 and 1979, before India won the first of their two titles in 1983.

Australia won in 1987 and since then has become the most successful team with five titles, while Pakistan, Sri Lanka and England are the only other nations to have won.

New Zealand finished as runners-up in 2015 and 2019.

This year's format

All 10 teams will play each other in the round-robin phase.

The top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals, with first place winners facing the team that came fourth, and the second and third placed teams facing off.

The top four will be decided by points, wins, net run rate, result of any game between tied teams, and pre-tournament seeding.

In 2019, six wins from nine games got three teams into the semi-finals, while New Zealand sneaked in with five wins and a superior net run rate to Pakistan.

The venues by city, stadium and capacity

• Ahmedabad, Narendra Modi Stadium, 132,000
• Bangalore, M Chinnaswamy Stadium, 40,000
• Chennai, MA Chidambaram Stadium, 50,000
• Delhi, Arun Jaitley Stadium, 41,800
• Dharamshala, HPCA Stadium, 23,000
• Hyderabad, Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, 55,000
• Kolkata, Eden Gardens, 66,000
• Lucknow, BRSABV Ekana Stadium, 50,000
• Mumbai, Wankhede Stadium, 32,000
• Pune, Maharashtra Stadium, 37,400

Prize money in $NZ per team

• Winner $6.7 million
• Runner-up $3.35m
• Losing Semi-Finalist $1.3m
• Teams eliminated after group stage $167,000
• Winner of each group stage match $67,000

Who are the favourites?

Playing the tournament in India is likely to give the teams from the sub-continent an advantage, especially the home side.

However, with so many internationals now playing in the Indian Premier League, the significance of the local conditions may not be as pronounced.

RNZ senior sports reporter Barry Guy takes a quick look at each team, with his favoured teams on top.

Predicted semi-finalists

• India: The 2011 champions fell at the semi-final stage in the last two tournaments, going down to Australia in 2015 and New Zealand in 2019. However 2023 appears to be the ideal time for them to add a third World Cup title. A star studded batting line-up and a formidable pace of attack, along with a couple of very capable all-rounders, means there are no obvious weaknesses in their squad. Favourites to win.
• England: The current holders of the one-day and T20 trophies, England has become the top tournament team in recent years. Led by Jos Buttler, England has a strong batting line-up and a game changer in captain Ben Stokes. A solid bowling line-up should keep them in most games and in recent years they have found the knack of winning from difficult situations. Experience will count a lot for them at this tournament.
• Pakistan: Winners in 1992 and runners-up in 1999, Pakistan went through some tough years, but they are back at their best under the leadership of Babar Azam. They were runners-up at the 2021 T20 World Cup and in the sub-continent conditions can be expected to excel. Ranked three in the world, Azam is the top-ranked batter, while Iman-ul-Haq is number three. Shaheen Afridi leads their attack, which should get them into the semi-finals.
• Australia: Never discount Australia - their form has been a little patchy in recent months, but the five-time winners have the pedigree to perform on the big stage. Fast bowler Pat Cummins leads the side, which includes fellow quicks Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. David Warner, Steve Smith and Travis Head are the backbone of the batting line-up, along with all-rounders Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Cameron Green. Australia lost to India in a warmup series, but were without a couple of key players. They will be contenders once again.

Predictions for the rest

• South Africa: A top-ranked side, but they may struggle in the conditions. They have a habit of not showing their best in tournaments.
• New Zealand: A great tournament team, but this side may not be as good as the team four years ago, that should have won in favourable conditions.
• Bangladesh: They have the potential to cause some upsets, but maybe not enough to get them into the last four.
• Sri Lanka: A team with mixed form, but they could do well in the conditions.
• Afghanistan: Another team that can cause upsets in the conditions. They have some experienced players, but not enough game changers.
• Netherlands: After finishing ahead of Scotland, Zimbabwe, West Indies and Ireland in the qualifying tournament, they could grab another couple of wins here.

Key games in New Zealand time

• 5 October at 9:30pm NZ vs England, in Ahmedabad
• 9 October at 9:30pm NZ vs Netherlands, in Hyderabad
• 13 October at 9:30pm NZ vs Bangladesh, in Chennai
• 18 October at 9:30pm NZ vs Afghanistan, in Chennai
• 22 October at 9:30pm NZ vs India, in Dharamsala
• 28 October at 6pm NZ vs Australia, in Dharamsala
• 1 November at 9;30pm NZ vs South Africa, in Pune
• 4 November at 6pm NZ vs Pakistan, in Bengaluru
• 9 November at 9:30pm NZ vs Sri Lanka, in Bengaluru

The New Zealand squad

• Kane Williamson (c)
• Trent Boult
• Mark Chapman*
• Devon Conway*
• Lockie Ferguson
• Matt Henry
• Tom Latham (vc,wk)
• Daryl Mitchell*
• Jimmy Neesham
• Glenn Phillips*
• Rachin Ravindra*
• Mitchell Santner
• Ish Sodhi
• Tim Southee
• Will Young*

*First One Day Cricket World Cup selection