Barely a year goes by without there being some form of Cricket World Cup, and the latest edition of the men's 50-over tournament gets underway this Thursday, with defending champions England taking on beaten finalists New Zealand in Ahmedabad.

The tournament, featuring ten teams, starts on October 5 but will not finish until November 19 when the final will be held, also in Ahmedabad.

Here's everything you need to know about the 13th edition of cricket's global showpiece.

When does the Cricket World Cup start?

The Cricket World Cup starts on October 5 with the first of 45 group-stage matches.

If that sounds like a lot, it is and, given each match is a one-day 50-over match, that means the tournament is spread over quite a long period of time.

In fact, the group stage takes over a month to complete, with India's clash against the Netherlands in Bengaluru wrapping up the first phase of the competition on November 12.

The semifinals will then take place on November 15 and November 16, before the final on Sunday, November 19.

That's 48 matches in all.

When are Australia's matches?

Australia gets its tournament underway against the hosts on Sunday, October 8, with the first ball at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai set for 19:30 AEDT.

The Aussies then face South Africa in Lucknow on October 12, staying in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to take on Sri Lanka on October 16.

Bengaluru is the next location for a clash with Pakistan on October 20, before a trip to the capital, Delhi, to meet the Netherlands on October 25 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

Australia will face finalists from 2019 New Zealand in Dharamsala on October 28, then taking on the defending champions England in Ahmedabad on November 4.

Next up on the magical mystery tour of India is a trip to the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to meet Afghanistan on November 7, before rounding out the group stages against Bangladesh on November 11 in Pune.

That's nine matches in 35 days, in eight different cities with over 7,200km of travel between venues.

If Australia finishes second or third in the group phase they will play their semifinal at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on November 16, but will play at the Wankhede the day before if they finish first or fourth.

Who is in the Cricket World Cup?

This is the second time the 50-over World Cup has featured just 10 teams, meaning there are some teams that have missed out.

India, as hosts, qualified for the tournament along with the top seven-ranked teams in the ICC Cricket Super League: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa.

The remaining two spots were filled by qualifiers from a tournament held in June and July in Zimbabwe.

Sri Lanka and the Netherlands were the two successful qualifiers, meaning full ICC members West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe all missed out.

This is the first time two-time winners West Indies have failed to play in the World Cup proper.

India vs Pakistan — that might be interesting…

Not for the first time in Cricket World Cup history, geopolitical tensions have overshadowed some of the build-up to this tournament.

Given India and Pakistan share arguably the biggest cricketing rivalry on Earth, they don't often play each other outside of major tournaments.

And, earlier this year, it seemed even playing at this World Cup would be too much to ask, with Pakistan threatening to boycott the tournament after India flat out refused to play in Pakistan at the Asia Cup.

A compromise was reached in the case of the Asia Cup, where India was able to play its matches in Sri Lanka instead.

That the situation has settled will be a relief to organisers.

At the 2019 World Cup the match between the two nations drew an audience of 273 million, with an additional 50 million digital-only viewers according to the ICC.

No doubt plenty will be tuning in when the two teams meet at the 100,000-capacity Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad on October 14.

How does the Cricket World Cup work?

The ten teams will all play against each other in a round robin group phase.

The top four teams at the end of that group phase will make it through to the semifinals.

With rain playing a frustrating role in some of the warm-up matches, there is every likelihood that it will play a role in the tournament proper too.

There are no reserve days for matches in the group stages — teams will just share the points in that case — but both semifinals do have a reserve day, as does the final. 

What happened at the last World Cup?

England are the defending champions from four years ago — and went on to underline their white ball dominance by winning the T20 World Cup in Australia last year, the first men's team to do so.

England won the tournament in the most dramatic of fashions at Lord's in 2019, by the barest of margins by beating New Zealand in the final.

The victory for the hosts was confirmed in the super over on boundary countback when Jos Buttler and Jason Roy ran out Martin Guptill in the super over as the Black Caps chased what would have been the winning run off the bowling of Jofra Archer. 

It was arguably one of the greatest 50-over games of all time — although that is scant consolation to New Zealand fans, who will forever bemoan the fine print in the tournament regulations.

Is boundary countback still a thing?