ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: Team captains meet Queen Elizabeth before tournament opener

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 is finally here and the teams are gearing up for some intense action in the next 45 days. However, before the start of the tournament, the captains of all the 10 teams in the tournament had a brush with royalty. Virat Kohli of India, Eoin Morgan of England, Gulbadin Naib of Afghanistan, Sarfaraz Ahmed of Pakistan, Jason Holder of West Indies, Faf du Plessis of South Africa, Kane Williamson of New Zealand, Aaron Finch of Australia, Dimuth Karunaratne of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh’s Mashrafe Mortaza met Queen Elizabeth 2 and Prince Harry at the Buckingham Palace in London.

The Queen and Prince Harry met with the captains and had a good time interacting with them. The BCCI posted an update on their official Twitter handle when Virat Kohli met with the Queen while the Royal Family Twitter handle also posted images on their official Twitter page about the meeting. While the captains were heading out to meet the Queen, Gulbadin Naib shared a photo on Twitter where all the captains were posing for a photo with Mashrafe Mortaza being the selfie clicker.

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Before the start of the ICC Cricket World Cup, there was also an opening party thrown at The Mall in Central London which involved a massive crowd. There was a 60-second challenge thrown at the teams and England managed to win the contest thanks to Kevin Pietersen’s swashbuckling knock. India did not fare all that well and they managed just 19 runs with the duo of Anil Kumble and Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar performing poorly.

England takes on South Africa in the opening game of the tournament at The Oval. While England has made it to the World Cup finals three times, South Africa has been knocked out in the semi-final stage four times. Both teams have never won the World Cup title and this gives them the perfect opportunity to break the jinx. England and South Africa have clashed in the World Cup six times with both teams winning three times each. While England won their first two encounters in 1992, South Africa bounced back and won three consecutive games before losing to England in the 2011 World Cup encounter in Chennai.

HIGHLIGHTS

• England takes on South Africa in the opening game of the ICC Cricket World Cup.
• England and South Africa have a 3-3 head-to-head record in World Cups.
• England and South Africa last played in the 2011 World Cup in Chennai.