ICC Chief Executive David Richardson picks the favourites to win the World Cup

The ICC Cricket World Cup is fast approaching with England set to host the mega event starting from May 30. A total of ten teams will fight it out in the newest format for the first time. While the fans are ecstatic about the home side and India’s chances to win the coveted title, ICC Chief Executive David Richardson, being the South African, has backed the players from the rainbow nation to break the jinx of a World title in 2019.

South Africa are tagged as’ chokers’ for not being able to cross the line in the semifinals of the world event. Also, with their best batsman AB de Villiers retiring suddenly earlier this year, their chances have certainly taken a hit. But Richardson feels that the team led by Faf du Plessis is capable of achieving the unthinkable. The Proteas recently won the three-match ODI series against Australia in their own den and are on the right path for the World Cup it seems.

Having said that, David Richardson also feels that England can win it on their home soil given the trend in the last two editions of the competition. “South Africa must be my favourites but if you ask me who can win it then it is anybody’s game. If England do not win at home, the No 1 team in the world right now, they’ll never win it,” he said in an interview to India Today.

You can never rule India out

The ICC boss is also completely aware of the threat Team India possesses in the multi-nation events. He pointed out how the Men in Blue have been consistently making it to the knockout stages over the last few years. “India is always there, I think they’ve been in the semifinals of almost every event over the last few years. You would be silly not to bet or you would be silly to bet against them,” Richardson further added.

As far as the demands for the tickets is concerned, David Richardson was overly impressed and confirmed that the 50-over format seems to be the most popular among the three formats of the game.

“The demands for tickets for the 2019 World Cup has been extraordinary. There are just two or three games where you can still buy tickets. This is reflective of the strength of crickets across all formats and not just T20. As much as 68 per cent of our cricket fans love all formats of the game. The 50-over World Cup is definitely the most popular,” the former South African wicket-keeper said.

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