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Google Doodle celebrates beginning of ICC Cricket World Cup 2023
The World Cup will begin today, with the first match being played between the defending champion England and New Zealand.
Google on Thursday celebrated the beginning of International Cricket Council’s (ICC) World Cup 2023, which will open at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad at 2pm, with an animated doodle.
The doodle showcases two ducks running between the wickets in the presence of audiences in the background. Once the user clicks on the doodle on the Google homepage, he/she will be redirected to the full schedule of the whole tournament.
The World Cup, which takes place every four years, is one of the world’s leading, most viewed and most popular one-day international (ODI) cricket match. In the tournament, ten teams compete for the coveted cup. This year, t is India’s turn to host the quadrennial flagship tournament — the 13th edition since its start in 1975. The World Cup will begin today, with the first match being played between the defending champion England and New Zealand.
45 matches will be played in the group stage, with each team set to face all the others once. This year, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, and Sri Lanka will be are participating in the tournament. Only four teams will progress to the knockout stage, which consists of two semi-final matches and one cup final in Ahmedabad.
Meanwhile, the security has been beefed up across different cities hosting the matches including Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Dharamsala and Pune. About 3,500 police personnel will be deployed at Narendra Modi stadium in Motera area and other parts of Ahmedabad during the opening match of the ICC Cricket World Cup on October 5. Joint Commissioner of Police, sector 1, Chirag Koradia on Wednesday said a multi-layered security is being put in place.
"As many as 16 IPS officers will be on the field to supervise our security set-up on Thursday during the cricket match. The same security arrangement, consisting of different layers, will be also implemented in subsequent matches to be played at the Narendra Modi stadium as part of the World Cup," he said.
Additionally, ahead of the inaugural match and four more ties to be played in Ahmedabad, the traffic police have issued a notification prohibiting the movement of vehicles on the road leading to the stadium from the BRTS junction from 11 am till midnight.
