ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2024 Schedule Announced

On Monday, December 11, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the complete schedule for the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2024. The competition is set to be hosted by South Africa in January and February.

Originally, the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2024 was scheduled to be hosted by Sri Lanka, but the governing body decided to move the marquee tournament out of the country due to the ban imposed on Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

The ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2024, which will be the fifteenth edition of the competition, is scheduled to begin on Friday, January 19. The first day of the tournament will see two matches – Ireland vs USA and South Africa vs West Indies.

Team India are the defending champions of the World Cup and they will begin their tournament with a match against 2020 winners Bangladesh on January 20. A total of 5 venues in the country will be hosting 41 matches over more than three weeks.

Talking about the groups, India are placed in Group A with Bangladesh, Ireland, and the USA while Group B consists of England, South Africa, the West Indies, and Scotland. Group C consists of Australia, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and Namibia, while Group D includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, New Zealand and Nepal.

The top three teams from each group will qualify for the Super Six phase of ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2024, before the knockout round of the competition. The summit clash of the competition will be held on February 11 and all the knockout matches have a reserve day. Also, the teams are set to play two warm-up matches before heading into the main tournament. The warm-ups will be played between January 13-17.

In the past 12 months, we have seen South Africa successfully deliver two milestone events – Chris Tetley

In an official statement issued by the ICC, the ICC Head of Events Chris Tetley talked about South Africa getting the opportunity to host the ICC U19 World Cup for the third time, having earlier hosted the competition in 1998 and 2020.

“In the past 12 months we have seen South Africa successfully deliver two milestone events for the sport – the inaugural ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup last year, and the groundbreaking ICC Women’s T20 World Cup that immediately followed,” Tetley said.

“The relocation of the U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2024 to South Africa allows us the opportunity to build on this momentum and welcome the best young cricketers on the planet to five notable international venues.”

ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2024 Schedule: