Sri Lanka first up for Black Caps

The Black Caps will begin their 2019 Cricket World Cup campaign against Sri Lanka in Cardiff.

For the 2019 World Cup, which has decreased in size from 14 teams to 10, the International Cricket Council has reverted to a round-robin format it last used at the 1992 tournament in Australia and New Zealand.

The draw on Thursday (Friday NZ time) also pitched tournament host England against South Africa in the opening match of the 46-day tournament at The Oval on May 30.

The Black Caps conclude the round-robin play with tough matches against Australia and hosts England.

All 10 teams will play the other once in the round robin with the top four advancing to the semifinals.

The India-pakistan match on June 16 will be one of six matches in Manchester in the tournament, which runs from May 30-July 14.

Politics has kept India and Pakistan, both former Cricket World Cup champions, from meeting in series, but they have met four times in limited-overs matches since the last World Cup. India won three of those matches, while Pakistan upset India in the 2017 Champions Trophy final at The Oval.

Defending champion Australia will play qualifier Afghanistan on June 1 at Bristol.

The semifinals will be at Old Trafford and Edgbaston. Lord’s will stage its fifth World Cup final on July 14.

Meanwhile, cricket’s governing body the ICC wants tougher penalties for ball tampering.

Chief executive Dave Richardson said they want players to respect the culture of the game, following the outcry in Australia’s recent series in South Africa when bowler Cameron Bancroft was

caught tampering with the ball.

Although Bancroft and the instigators of the incident, Steve Smith and David Warner all received lengthy bans from Cricket Australia, the ICC were unable to hand out significant punishments under their own rules.

Smith was given a one-test ban and fined 100 per cent of his match fees for the third test in the heated series against the Proteas.

But Richardson told a news conference that the ICC wants to change its rules on the punishments that can be given out under its code of conduct rules.

‘‘We want to move towards stricter and heavier sanction for ball-tampering and all other offences that are indicative of a lack of respect for your opponent, for the game, for the umpire, for fans, for the media etc,’’ Richardson said. ‘‘We want penalties in place which act as proper deterrent. Fines are not proving to be the answer.’’