at a time of declining viewing figures for cricket in India. Broadcaster Star Sports claimed that its coverage reached 635 million viewers in India. An ICC-commissioned report claimed that the tournament was watched by over 1.5billion people. Broadcasting rights The following networks broadcast the tournament: Opening ceremony The opening ceremonies were held separately in Christchurch, New Zealand and Melbourne, Australia, on 12 February 2015, two days before the first two matches. Prize money The International Cricket Council declared a total prize money pool of $10 million for the tournament, which was 20 percent more than the 2011 edition. The prize money was distributed according to the performance of the team as follows: This means that if the winner had remained undefeated throughout the group stage of the tournament, they would have won a total of $4,245,000 (winner's prize plus $45,000 for each group stage win), while a team eliminated in the group stage without any wins would have gotten $35,000. Venues Each venue hosted 3 pool stage matches. The quarter-finals were in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Wellington, the semi-finals were played in Auckland and Sydney, and the final was played in Melbourne. Altogether there were 49 matches in 14 venues, with Australia hosting 26 games and New Zealand hosting 23 games. Umpires The umpire selection panel selected 20 umpires to officiate at the World Cup: five each from Australia and England, five from Asia, two each from New Zealand and South Africa and one from the West Indies. Australia Bruce Oxenford Paul Reiffel Steve Davis Rod Tucker Simon Fry South Africa Marais Erasmus Johan Cloete England Ian Gould Nigel Llong Richard Illingworth Richard Kettleborough Michael Gough New Zealand Billy Bowden Chris Gaffaney India S. Ravi Pakistan Aleem Dar Sri Lanka Kumar Dharmasena Ranmore Martinesz Ruchira Palliyaguruge West Indies Joel Wilson Squads The teams, after initially naming a provisional 30-member squad, were required to finalise a 15-member squad for the tournament on or before 7 January 2015. Warm-up matches Fourteen non-ODI warm-up matches were played from 8 to 13 February. Group stage A total of 42 matches were played throughout the group stage of the tournament. The top four teams from each pool qualified for the quarter-finals. In the event that two or more teams are tied on points after six matches the team with the most wins was to be ranked higher. If tied teams also had the same number