ENGLAND, April 27: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday announced the schedule for the 2019 World Cup to be held in England.

The opening match will be contested between host England and South Africa on May 30 to 14 July at The Oval in London. The tournament will have ten teams, will last for 45 days, and have 48 matches.

Virat Kohli's Team India will take on arch-rivals Pakistan in a mouth-watering encounter on June 16 in Manchester.

Meanwhile, the ICC has decided to grant T20 International status to all its existing 104 members in a bid to popularize the game across the globe. The move will effectively mean that a T20 match between Argentina and Papua New Guinea will have international status from now on.

The ICC Board at its quarterly meeting decided that "New minimum standards will be introduced making it as easy as possible for members to play international cricket in a sustainable and affordable way." All member women's teams will be awarded T20I status on July 1, 2018, whilst all member men's teams will be awarded T20I status on January 1, 2019, following the cut-off point for qualification to the ICC World T20 2020.

Rankings for women and men will be introduced in October 2018 and May 2019 respectively. Following are some of the key points that have been discussed: FICA report that says a large number of players turning T20 freelancers:

The ICC Board received a presentation on regulations and sanctioning of events including domestic T20 leagues and player release (mulling cap on a player on the number of leagues he can take part). Election of Chairman of ICC: The Board agreed on the process by which the ICC Chairman will be elected for the next two years from June when current Chairman Shashank Manohar's first two-year term expires.

Players' Concussion (Post Phill Hughes' death and other on-field accidents): New concussion guidelines, which had been developed by the ICC Medical Advisory Committee were adopted by the Board. The protocols are simplified, more cricket specific and in line with the consensus statement on concussion in sport.

Nepal: A recent Extraordinary General Meeting of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) adopted a revised constitution that had been developed by an Advisory Group comprising of stakeholders in cricket in Nepal. The next step towards reinstatement is for CAN to hold elections under new constitution.

Cricket Committee: The Board ratified the appointment of Belinda Clark of Australia as the Women's Committee representative on the Cricket Committee replacing Clare Connor who had served a maximum of three three-year terms. Whilst David White, CEO of New Zealand Cricket and John Stephenson, MCC both had their terms on the Men's Cricket Committee.

Schedule of the 2019 ICC World Cup: 

 
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