Fans' guide to the 2019 World Cup

How's this tournament work? This year's World Cup is a 10-team competition, and each team will play every other team once for a total of 45 group-stage games. A win earns two points, a loss none and a tie, no result or abandoned match will earn a single point. There are no bonus points.

The top four teams after the group stage will play the semi-finals. The first semi-final at Old Trafford will see the top team play the fourth-ranked team, and the second semi-final at Edgbaston will see the teams that finished second and third face off. The final is at Lord's on July 14.

Image Id: E1347C3C0233447584126E13704D596B Image Caption: The 10 World Cup captains // Getty

How can I watch? Kayo and Fox Cricket will carry every game of the World Cup, plus selected warm-up matches, starting on May 24, broadcasting in high definition and ad-break free during play. Fox Cricket will run a 30-minute pre-game show featuring the likes of Mark Waugh, Andrew Symonds, Chris Lynn and Kerry O'Keefe in their Sydney studio, and the broadcast will also revert to the studio between innings. Where there's a double-header, some matches will be screened on Fox Sports 505.

The Nine Network will broadcast free-to-air coverage of every Australian game on GEM, as well as some of the bigger games in the tournament, plus both semi-finals and the final. They will also have a 30-minute pre-game studio show with their team consisting of Mark Taylor, Lisa Sthalekar and Ian Healy with host Rebecca Maddern. Non-Australian group matches to be broadcast on GEM include the tournament's first match between England and South Africa on Thursday, May 30, England v Pakistan (June 3), India v Pakistan (June 16), New Zealand v South Africa (June 19), England v India (June 30) and England v New Zealand (July 3).

Not signed up to Kayo yet? Well, there's never been a better time, and you can get your World Cup campaign off to a flyer with a 14-day free trial by clicking right HERE.

Is the time difference going to be a killer? Yes and no. There aren't a lot of day-night games in this tournament – in fact, just seven of them – so most fixtures start at the very friendly time of 7.30pm AEST. However, Australia is playing three of those seven day-night games, and they don't start until 10.30pm AEST. They're the matches against Afghanistan – Australia's opening match of the tournament on June 1 – New Zealand and South Africa. Is now a good time to mention Kayo's on-demand service?

Will Kayo, Fox or GEM have different coverage? As in previous ICC tournaments, there will be a central broadcast production that will be the same across Kayo, Fox Cricket and Nine for the actual play. The difference will come in pre- and post-play and the intervals. GEM will also feature regular ad-breaks in play. The ICC is producing the broadcast and has promised state-of-the-art coverage and a "contemporary-styled graphics package to visualise the ever-crucial scores and statistics". The broadcast will include a minimum of 32 cameras at every game, including eight ultra-motion Hawk-Eye cameras, front and reverse view stump cameras and Spidercam. They will wow us with 360-degree replays by stitching multiple camera feeds together. A variety of analytical and visual enhancements will be used, including player tracking, while CricViz data will also be used. And, as Kayo and Fox viewers saw last summer, the ICC will have a roving buggy camera on the ground.   

Who are the TV commentators? As you'd expect for a global tournament, the ICC have assembled a cast from across the globe, touting the World Cup commentary debut of Michael Clarke as their trump card. The other Aussies on the commentary roster are Mel Jones and Michael Slater, and they will be joined by an international cast including: Nasser Hussain, Ian Bishop, Sourav Ganguly, Kumar Sangakkara, Michael Atherton, Alison Mitchell, Brendon McCullum, Graeme Smith, Wasim Akram, Shaun Pollock, Mark Nicholas, Michael Holding, Isa Guha, Pommie Mbangwa, Sanjay Manjrekar, Harsha Bhogle, Simon Doull, Ian Smith, Ramiz Raja, Athar Ali Khan and Ian Ward.

How about radio coverage? The World Cup will be broadcast on ABC Radio, Crocmedia's SEN and Macquarie Sports Radio.

I want my scores online. Then you're in the right place. The cricket.com.au match centre and CA Live app will bring you live scoring from all 48 World Cup matches as well as all the 'official' warm-up games.

WORLD CUP STANDINGS, NEWS, VIDEO and MORE

What else have you got for me? How about unrivalled coverage from on the ground with the Australian cricket team, featuring regular exclusive insights from Ricky Ponting throughout the World Cup, plus all the latest news, analysis and highlights you could want? And from not just the World Cup but the extensive Australia A white- and red-ball tours, Women's Ashes and of course, men's Ashes Tests. Everything you'll want to know about the game of cricket to get you through the long, cold Australian winter, you'll find right here on cricket.com.au and the CA Live app. And if you aren't already subscribed to The Unplayable Podcast for the best cricket-related audio gear for your ears going around, do yourself a favour! 

Squads? Here's the Australia squad: Aaron Finch (c), Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa. For a full list of every team's squad, go HERE.

Fans can also sync the fixtures to their calendar HERE.

Venues? This tournament will be played at 11 of the UK's most picturesque grounds. Lord's will host five matches, including the final, while Old Trafford will be the busiest with six games, including the first semi-final. Edgbaston hosts the other semi-final and will have four other matches. The other venues are: Bristol, Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, the Riverside at Durham, Headingley in Leeds, The Oval in south London, Trent Bridge in Nottingham, the Rose Bowl at Southampton and Somerset. Small boundaries, flat wickets and explosive batting have some tipping this World Cup could see a team pile up a 500-plus total in the tournament.

Fixtures: There's 48 games in total in this tournament. The Aussie matches are at the bottom of the page but for a full list of all World Cup fixtures, click HERE.

Prize money? Other than the love and the game , pride of representing their country and adoration of millions of fans, the teams are playing for some big bickies. The ICC have stumped up a US$10 million prize pool for the tournament, with the winning team to earn US$4 million. The runners-up will receive US$2million. Bow out at the semi-final stage and dry your tears with US$800,000. And for every match won in the group stage, teams will earn US$40,000.

The Nitty Gritty!

It's a long tournament, and anything can happen in the bid to crown the world's best 50-over side. Below is a run-down of the things you'll need to know over the coming weeks.

Warm-up games: Australia and the West Indies got a head start on the rest of the pack after they organised a bilateral unofficial warm-up game in Southampton that the Aussies won comfortably with Steve Smith again in great tough. You can find a scorecard and highlights of that match here. The Aussies then beat England by 12 runs (albeit an England side admittedly missing a couple of their biggest names) thanks to a brilliant century from Steve Smith and tight death bowling, and comfortably chased down Sri Lanka in their final warm-up match. Elsewhere, the West Indies and New Zealand combined for an incredible 751 runs in Bristol, which just so happens to be the venue where the Aussies launch their campaign on Saturday night against the Afghanis.

Tie breakers? Oh yeah, we've got tie breakers. If any teams are locked on equal points after the group stage, they will have the tie broken by the following methods, in order: 1 The team with the most wins; 2 The team with the best Net Run Rate; 3 Head-to-head result (points, then if still equal, Net Run Rate). And if all that doesn't work, it will revert to the seedings for this tournament (more on that below).

Image Id: https://www.cricket.com.au/~/media/News/2017/06/17WorldCupSemiFinal1999?la=en&hash=85026725978C197678880F021905250D3FB62E36 Image Caption: No Super Over for the famous '99 semi-final

Super Overs? Only in the knockout games. If scores are tied in a semi-final or the final itself, we'll have a Super Over. If conditions prevent a Super Over from being completed (including on the reserve day) in the semi-final, then the higher-ranked team goes through to the final. If there's a tie in the final and there's no way to complete a Super Over, then we'll have joint winners.

The Super Over format is pretty standard. The team batting second in the match will bat first in the Super Over. The bowler can choose whichever end to bowl from, and each team gets one review. If two wickets fall, that ends the over.

If scores are tied after the Super Over, the team that scored more boundaries (fours and sixes combined) in the match wins, and if that's still a tie, we have a countback from the final ball of the Super Over until one team scored more than the other off a delivery.

Net Run Rate? It could be important, but this is real maths boffin territory. Basically, to get the Net Run Rate you work out the average runs scored per batting over throughout the tournament, and then subtract the average runs conceded per bowling over through the tournament. Got it? Now, if it rains …. Actually, best we leave it to OPTA and the real maths whizzes.

Image Id: https://www.cricket.com.au/~/media/News/2015/03/11ShaunPollock?la=en&hash=1D972E9A9BDFE5F18AC7032A99459E503674E253 Image Caption: The Proteas learned all about Duckworth-Lewis the hard way in 2003// Getty

But what if it rains? Fair question, the tournament is in England and Wales after all. The tournament will use the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method and during the group stage, results will be determined on the day. All knockout matches, however, have reserve days allocated so if England really rolls out the summer weather clichés and the game can't be completed on the scheduled day, teams will be able to pack up and return the next day for both semi-finals and the final.

And if, in this time of a global climate crisis, the entire group stage is washed out (hey, it could happen!) the semi-finals would be South Africa (1) v England (4) and India (2) v Australia (3), as per the ICC's seedings.

Seedings? Yep, so the ICC took the rankings of the top eight teams way back when the path to the World Cup first began to set the seedings for this tournament, then added in the two teams that came through the qualifying tournament, which gives us a few results out of whack with the current standings. Truthfully, it means little unless it comes down to this to split the teams for semi-final qualification, or the entire group stage is washed out. But here's where the ICC has seeded nations for the 2019 World Cup: 1 South Africa; 2 India; 3 Australia; 4 England; 5 New Zealand; 6 Pakistan; 7 Bangladesh; 8 Sri Lanka; 9 Afghanistan; 10 West Indies.

Over rate offences? It's important to note that all captains will start the World Cup with a clean slate, and no over rate demerit points hanging over from previous bilateral series will count against them at the start of the tournament. However, once the tournament begins the usual rules will apply. Two 'minor' over rate offences will see a captain suspended for a match, or one 'serious' offence will earn a suspension of two matches. The ICC deems being one or two overs short of the over rate a 'minor' offence, and anything more is 'serious'.

Powerplays? Stock standard stuff these days, but to be clear: Only two fielders outside the ring for the first 10 overs, then no more than four fielders in the deep until over 40. The fielding captain can have five fielders in the deep for the final 10 overs.

DRS? The Decision Review System will be in use for the World Cup, with the same rules you're used to for regular ODIs: one each per team per innings. An unsuccessful review causes the team to lose it, but if their challenge is successful, they keep the review. If the verdict is 'umpire's call' then the review is retained.

Mankad? Non-strikers beware, Law 41.16 applies in the World Cup! And as was exposed during this year's IPL, non-strikers are still sneaking up the pitch during the delivery stride. But Ravi Ashwin isn't in India's squad, so we'll have to wait and see if anyone tries a Mankad dismissal at the World Cup.

June 1: Afghanistan v Australia, Bristol (D/N), 10.30pm

June 6: Australia v West Indies, Trent Bridge, 7.30pm

June 9: India v Australia, The Oval, 7.30pm

June 12: Australia v Pakistan, Taunton, 7.30pm

June 15: Sri Lanka v Australia, The Oval, 7.30pm

June 20: Australia v Bangladesh, Trent Bridge, 7.30pm

June 25: England v Australia, Lord's, 7.30pm

June 29: New Zealand v Australia, Lord's (D/N), 10.30pm

July 6: Australia v South Africa, Old Trafford (D/N), 10.30pm

July 9: Semi-Final 1, Old Trafford, 7.30pm

July 11: Semi-Final 2, Edgbaston, 7.30pm

July 14: Final, Lord's, 7.30pm

For a full list of all World Cup fixtures, click HERE