ICC World Cup 2019: Team India receives hefty prize money after semis exit

A couple of days ago, Team India got eliminated for the 2019 edition of the World Cup. Virat Kohli & Co lost to the Kane Williamson-captained New Zealand by 18 runs at the Old Trafford in Manchester and bowed out of the mega event. Despite their loss, the Men in Blue are set to receive huge prize money from the International Cricket Council (ICC), the apex cricket board.

As the tournament was played in the round robin format, the ICC has made sure that all participating teams would receive prize money for each contest. In the main round, Team India finished on top of the points table with 15 points from eight encounters. Their only defeat came versus Eoin Morgan’s England at the Edgbaston in Birmingham where they couldn’t cross the line by 31 runs.

The prize money for India, the semi-finalists, is $ 800,000 (approx INR 5.49 crore) as per ICC’s media release. The winner of each league match was set to receive $ 40,000 and it means that the Men in Blue are winners of $ 2,80,000 courtesy of their seven wins. The prize money for the champion of the tournament is $ 4,000,000 (approx INR 27.75 crore), the highest amount to date. The final will be played at the Lord’s Cricket Ground between New Zealand and England on July 14.

A reasonable campaign for India   

Kohli’s men made a stupendous start to their campaign after being deemed as one of the favourites to lift the trophy. India thrashed South Africa by six wickets at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. They had it pretty easy in the first round, barring their match against Afghanistan, which went down to the wire and took a lot of effort to win by 11 runs in Southampton after being bowled out for an under-par score.

Their main man with the bat was the vice-captain, Rohit Sharma smashed as many as five tons. Following their domination in the main round, India were expected to brush aside the Black Caps in the semi-final. However, the Kiwis had other ideas. Chasing a target of 240, India lost Virat, Rohit and KL Rahul with the score at five in the fourth over.

MS Dhoni (50) and Ravindra Jadeja (77) tried their best and got their team close, but their efforts went in vain. It was Dhoni’s run-out by Martin Guptill that dashed India’s hopes.