1 Aug 2013

Pools and venues announced for Cricket World Cup 2015

7:30 am on 1 August 2013

New Zealand has been grouped with England, Australia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in pool play, for the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

The venues and pool matches for the tournament which is being jointly hosted by New Zealand and Australia were announed Tuesday.

Auckland's Eden Park will host one semi-final and the Sydney Cricket Ground the other.

The final will be played in Melbourne.

Seven New Zealand cities will host matches, with Christchurch's Hagley Oval scheduled to host the opening game between New Zealand and Sri Lanka on February 14th.

Christchurch's hosting of matches though is subject to Environment Court approval of the re-development of Hagley Oval.

Wellington will host the New Zealand-England pool match and a quarterfinal, while Auckland will also host the Black Caps match against Australia.

The Black Caps will also play Bangladesh in Hamilton while Dunedin and Napier will each host New Zealand's matches against two yet to be determined qualifiers for their pool.

Fourteen countries will compete in the event with the top four teams from each of the two pools, advancing to the quarterfinals.

India are the defending champions. Pakistan won the tournament when it was last staged in Australia and New Zealand in 1992.