The schedule for the upcoming ICC World Cup (CWC 2023) was announced on June 27 by the BCCI and the governing body of world cricket in grand style at an event in Mumbai. The schedule sees the host Team India playing its 9 league games at 9 different venues.
This will make the Rohit Sharma-led side, the most traveled team in the tournament, covering a distance of approximately 8400 kms while crisscrossing nine cities for nine league games in 34 days.
In case India reaches the semi-final and then the final, the distance covered would be close to 9700 km for 11 games in 42 days.
India might be troubled by fatigue as most of their matches are day and night, which will end by 11 pm and the players would need to catch a flight to catch every third day, making this whole thing very tiresome after grueling 100-over games.
When the Indian team plays at home, it typically takes charter aircraft rather than commercial planes, which significantly shortens the time and distance traveled but does not necessarily guarantee access to business class.
For fast bowlers, there won't be much room for their legs. The only team that will compete in league matches in all nine cities in India. Every other notable team plays at least twice in a single city.
Hence once the team lands in Chennai for the Australia game, the aerial distance traversed will be in this order: Chennai to Delhi (1761 km), Delhi to Ahmedabad (775 km), Ahmedabad to Pune (516 km), Pune to Dharamsala (1936 km), Dharamsala to Lucknow (748 km), Lucknow to Mumbai (1190 km), Mumbai to Kolkata (1652 km) and Kolkata to Bengaluru (1544 km).
"In the case of the Indian team, you can't deny any of the nine associations a chance to watch their stars in action. You had to accommodate every member association and hence it's a bit choc-a-bloc," a BCCI official told PTI.
Also, the schedule is such that first-team players won't get any time for net sessions between the games as there is hardly a three-day gap. Most sessions will be optional ones keeping the physical condition of players in mind.
Pakistan is scheduled to play two games each in Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru. The only single-city game for Pakistan is in Ahmedabad where they take on India in a high-stakes match on October 15.
Babar Azam's side will travel around 6849 km. More importantly, it will get a week each in two cities --Hyderabad at the start of the tournament and Chennai during the final week of October.
Pakistan will play their first two matches (October 6,12) against two Qualifiers in Hyderabad.
They will travel from Hyderabad to Ahmedabad (876 km), Ahmedabad to Bengaluru (1235), Bengaluru to Chennai (284 km), Chennai to Kolkata (1366 km), Kolkata to Bengaluru (1544 km) and Bengaluru to Kolkata (1544 km).
Australia, the five-time champions, also travel way less compared to India with a week's stay in Lucknow between October 9 and 16 where they play South Africa and a Qualifier.
The total distance traveled by Australia is 6907 km. Their traveling itinerary is Chennai to Lucknow (1534 km), Lucknow to Bengaluru (1578 km), Bengaluru to Delhi (1740 km), Delhi to Dharamsala (409 km), Dharamsala to Ahmedabad (1087), Ahmedabad to Mumbai (441 km) and Mumbai to Pune (118 km).
England, the defending champions, will also travel like India, with no two back-to-back games in a single city. They will only play twice in Ahmedabad.
England travels around 8171 km. They go from Ahmedabad to Dharamsala (1162 km), Dharamsala to Delhi (409 km), Delhi to Mumbai (1148 km), Mumbai to Bengaluru (841 km), Bengaluru to Lucknow (1578 km), Lucknow to Ahmedabad (942 km), Ahmedabad to Pune (516 km) and Pune to Kolkata (1575 km).
(PTI inputs)
