India will open their 2019 World Cup campaign against South Africa on June 4. The first match was earlier on June 2 but after a meeting on Tuesday, April 24, India's match was shifted.
The reason behind the change is that the BCCI will have to maintain a mandatory 15-day gap between the Indian Premier League (IPL) final and international assignment as per the Lodha Committee recommendation.
The ICC 2019 World Cup will be held in the UK from May 30 to July 14. The matter was discussed during the ICC Chief Executives meeting in Kolkata on Tuesday.
"The 2019 IPL will be played between March 29 and May 19. But we need to maintain a 15-day gap and World Cup starts on May 30. Therefore as per a 15-day gap we could have only played on June 4. Earlier, we were scheduled to start on June 2 but we couldn't have played on that day," a senior BCCI official present here told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
"South Africa are our first opponents. The CEC agreed and the matter has been referred to the ICC board," he further added.