There are only a few days left for the new year to begin. 2022 was full of events like the Commonwealth Games, FIFA World Cup, and T20 World Cup. 2023 will also bring many world championships and tournaments for sports lovers. For the first time, there will be the Women’s Under-19 World Cup and Women’s IPL.
At the same time, India will host tournaments like ICC Cricket World Cup, Hockey World Cup, World Boxing, and Shooting World Cup. We will know such top sporting events of 2023 in this news.
For the first time: 2 big events of women’s cricket
Women IPL… The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is going to conduct the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the first time in 2023. Since 2018, the Challengers Trophy was definitely being held in the name of Women’s IPL. But, there were only 4 matches in this, and women players did not get many opportunities. This time IPL of 5 teams is going to happen. The tournament is proposed between March 5 and 26. In which there will be more than 25 matches. The official schedule of the tournament will be released soon.
Under-19 Women’s World Cup… The International Cricket Council (ICC) is going to organize the Under-19 Women’s World Cup for the first time. This World Cup of T20 format will be held in South Africa from 14 to 29 January. A total of 41 matches will be played between 16 teams. Team India is in Group D along with hosts South Africa, Scotland, and UAE Under-19 teams. India’s captain is Shefali Verma and vice-captain is Risha Ghosh. Both players have also played with the senior women’s team.
Host India: Hockey and Cricket World Cup
India will host 4 major world tournaments of different sports and one Asian Championship this year. There will be Hockey World Cup in January, the Women’s World Boxing in March, the Shooting World Cup in August, and Cricket World Cup in October-November. At the same time, the Asian Wrestling Championship will also be held in March-April. Know in detail about the Hockey World Cup in further news. Know here about these 4 events…
Women’s World Boxing… The 12th Women’s World Boxing Championship will be held in New Delhi from 15 to 31 March. India’s Nakhat Zareen is the defending champion of the championship which is held almost every 2 years. Boxers from more than 75 countries will participate in 12 different weight categories in the championship. New Delhi is hosting the tournament for the third time after the first championship in 2001. Earlier in 2006 and 2008 also the country’s capital had hosted the event.
Shooting World Cup… Possible ISSF’s Rifle and Pistol Shooting World Cup will be held in Bhopal in September. The tournament, held every year since 1988, is considered important for Olympic qualification. Shooters like Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chowdhary, Anjum Moudgil will be seen representing India in the World Cup.
ICC Men’s World Cup… The International Cricket Council (ICC) has handed over the hosting of the 13th edition of the Men’s Cricket World Cup to India. India had earlier hosted the Cricket World Cup in 1987, 1996 and 2011 as well. It then had to share hosting with neighboring countries Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. But, this time the entire tournament will be held in India only. Will learn about the tournament in further detail.
Asian Wrestling… Asian Wrestling Championship will be held in New Delhi from March to April. In the championship to be held every year, there will be competition in different weight categories in the women’s and men’s categories. Many wrestlers including India’s Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, and Sakshi Malik will represent India. Wrestlers from more than 36 countries are expected to participate in the championship.
Hockey: World Cup in January
The Hockey World Cup, which is held every 4 years, will be held in India this year. The tournament is to be held in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela in Odisha from January 13 to 29. The 16 teams have been divided into 4 different groups. Team India is in Group D along with England, Spain, and Wales. There will be around 4-4 matches in the tournament every day at 1, 3, 5, and 7 pm.
There will be a total of 44 matches between 16 teams. The final will be held in Bhubaneswar on January 29. The defending champion of the tournament, which began in 1971, is Belgium. The team won the title by defeating Netherlands in 2018 final. India could win the World Cup only once in 1975. Since then India could not reach the semi-finals even once. Pakistan-Netherlands 4-4 and Germany-Australia have been world champions 2-2 times.
Cricket: Asia Cup will be held in Pakistan
IPL-16… The Indian Premier League (IPL), the biggest tournament of the franchise T20 league, will be played between March and May. The schedule for the 16th edition has not been released yet. 74 matches will be played between 10 teams in the tournament. Gujarat Titans, who played IPL for the first time in 2022, lifted the trophy under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya. The 2 most successful teams of the tournament are Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK). MI has won the trophy 5 times and CSK 4 times. Whereas, the last time runner-up team Rajasthan Royals (RR) won the first tournament in 2008.
WTC Final… The final match of the ICC World Test Championship will be played at The Oval ground in England in June. 9 teams are participating in this year’s championship. Australia is first and India is second in the points table. At the same time, the third team South Africa can also reach the final of the tournament. The final match will be played between the top 2 teams of the points table of WTC. This championship is the World Cup of Test cricket format. Which started in 2020. The first final played in 2021 was won by New Zealand. The team captured the title by defeating India by 8 wickets.
Asia Cup… The Asia Cup is to be held in Pakistan in September. Teams from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and UAE including India, and Pakistan will participate in it. This time, this tournament to be held in 50 over format is considered to be the biggest cricket tournament among Asian teams. India has won it 7 times, Sri Lanka 6 and Pakistan 2 times. The tournament takes place once every 2 years. Sri Lanka is the defending champion. He defeated Pakistan last time in the final.
ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup… Cricket’s biggest tournament ODI World Cup will be held in India in October-November. Top-10 teams of ICC will participate in it. The schedule of the tournament, which is held once every 4 years, has not been released yet. England’s team is the defending champion. They defeated New Zealand in the super-over in 2019 final. Australia has won the tournament 5 times and India-West Indies 2-2 times. England, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan have been champions once each.
