How are the Cricket World Cup hosts decided?

ICC has been on the receiving end of criticism from the die-hard cricket fans because of their decision to host the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in England and Wales. The rainy weather has caused a lot of interruptions in the play apart from the abandonment of 4 vital group stage matches.

Only 18 matches have been played thus far in this tournament and it has broken the record of the most abandoned games in a Cricket World Cup. In the 11 World Cups played earlier, the fans never witnessed 4 matches getting abandoned in the same edition.

The cricket fans who were waiting for this mega-event since the last 4 years and the ones who have specially travelled to the United Kingdom to support their team are now questioning ICC's decision of hosting the World Cup in England.

But, one should not blame the organizers for this decision because the ICC had chosen England and Wales as the hosts of 2019 World Cup back in April 2006! Yes, that's right. The heads of all the top cricketing nations of the world had gathered to decide the hosts of the ICC events from 2007-19 on 30th April 2006.

ICC has a rotational policy in place for the hosts since 1983. Under that policy, each cricket playing bloc of the world will have the right of hosting the Cricket World Cup once in 20 years but thanks to India's powers at the international level, these rules are not followed that strictly.

India and Pakistan got the chance to host the 1987 World Cup, followed by Australia and New Zealand in 1992, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan in 1996, England in 1999, South Africa in 2003 and West Indies in 2007.

The Australia and New Zealand bloc was set to host the 2011 World Cup but the Asian quartet of Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan promised extraordinary profits for ICC. Thus, ICC conducted a voting session where the top teams cast their votes to decide the hosts. The Asian bloc received 10 votes while Australia and New Zealand could garner only 3 votes. This victory gave the 2011 World Cup hosting rights to Asia.

Following the rotational policy, Australia and New Zealand were allotted the 2015 World Cup while England which had hosted the 1999 World Cup received the hosting rights of 2019 World Cup.

India's dominance has helped them secure the rights of 2023 World Cup and ICC is yet to decide the hosts of the 2027 World Cup. If the rotational policy was followed properly, Australia and New Zealand would have hosted 2011 World Cup, the 2015 World Cup would have been played in Asia while England would still host the 2019 World Cup.

To conclude, ICC has a fixed rotational policy in place which helps them decide the hosts of the biggest event of cricket and if ICC follows the policy, then the African continent will get the hosting rights of the 2027 ICC World Cup.

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