The opening ceremony of World Cup 2019 took place at the Mall in London on Wednesday. Many celebrities, former cricketers and captains of all the ten participating teams graced the occasion. The hosts Kevin Pietersen, Shibani Dandekar and Paddy McGuinness put their all efforts to make the ceremony interesting and entertaining. English singer John Newman came performed his song ‘Feel the Love’.
Captains of all the teams were present on the occasion. Skippers Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, Kane Williamson, Aaron Finch, Mashrafe Mortaza, Eoin Morgan, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sarfraz Ahmed , Gulbadin Naib and Jason Holder were also felicitated at the stage. The captains also shared their thoughts on the stage are crowd greeted them with load cheer.
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan was also present on the occasion and Indian Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar also among the celebrities who attended the event. Malala spoke about development of women in the field of sports.
60-minute challenge entertains fans
In the 60-second challenge, a competition was held between various teams as each side was represented by two guest figures. The team with the highest score in sixty seconds would win the challenge. Former Australian batsman David Boon was the umpire for this little game. Former Indian skipper Anil Kumble and Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar represented India at the event. The event also involved legends such as Viv Richards, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, and Kevin Pietersen, among others.
Afghanistan started off the challenge and they scored 52 in one minute. Next, former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene came out to represent Sri Lanka and the team scored 43. West Indies were represented by legend Viv Richards and Olympic athlete Yohan Blake and they scored 47 in one minute.
Abdur Razzaq featured in Bangladesh’s team. They scored just 22. Pakistan scored 38 and they were represented by Malala Yousafzai. They were followed by Australia. Brett Lee represented the Aussies and they were able to muster the highest score of the 60-second challenge and they scored 69 runs. New Zealand was able to score only 32. South African team had Jacques Kallis and footballer Steven Pienaar. They scored 48 runs.
India represented by Anil Kumble and Farhan Akhtar scored the lowest score of 19 among all teams. Then the English team came out to bat and it featured Kevin Pietersen. They scored 74 in one minute and they ended up winning the challenge. After the challenge, the World Cup trophy was showcased. It was escorted to the stage by former World Cup-winning captain Michael Clarke and former English off-spinner Graeme Swann.
With inputs from ANI
