London Stadium expected to host India-Pakistan clash in 2019 World Cup

The London Stadium in England has moved a step closer to hosting two World Cup games during the 2019 World Cup scheduled to be played in England and Wales. The matches are expected to be played over a weekend and the England and the Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are expecting a record-breaking festival of cricket.

The World Cup 2019 organisers want the London Stadium to host a day-night match on a Friday followed by a game on Sunday. If the plan does work out, then India and England are certain to play a match each at the London Stadium. The probable fixtures as of now are England playing Australia on a Friday while India taking on Pakistan on Sunday.

The crowd has a capacity of 60,000 so the India-Pakistan clash is expected to pull the maximum amount of crowd in a clash between the two nations outside the sub-continent.  If two matches are indeed held at the London Stadium then it would definitely reduce the operating costs and the increase the viewership of the games.

The World Cup organising committee will meet and discuss the availability of the stadium on May 11 and is optimistic of confirming the decision in mid-July. The decision can only be taken after seeing how quickly it adapts to the athletics after the initial season was used by West Ham. The time span in which the stadium can host a couple of cricket matches is only believed to be a week.

It was earlier cited that the London Stadium can host T20 matches of Essex next summer but it appears a highly unlikely prospect now. The World Cup matches will be the first cricket matches in the ground and for the first time drop in pitches will be used in international cricket. But it remains to be seen whether the outfield meets the requirement of ICC but it is believed that they are keen on the concept.