Eoin Morgan believes the World Cup in England can inspire "every young kid in this country" to take up cricket.

While Morgan, the England captain, accepted that the impact of the tournament will be greater if his team "go a long way" in it, he believes that simply hosting the event for the first time since 1999 will capture the public imagination and attract a new generation of supporters. And he drew on the example of England's women's side, who won a home World Cup in 2017, to show the effect a successful side could have.

"The World Cup alone raises the profile of the game," Morgan said. "And provides a platform for every young kid in this country to have a hero or inspiration to pick up a ball or a bat.

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"The impact of this World Cup is not as big an impact unless we go a long way, but it will have an impact on everybody. We got knocked out of the '99 World Cup early, but I still remember it like it was yesterday.

"The impact of that [women's] World Cup two years ago was amazing. The women's game is thriving. It would mean a huge amount for us to win it. I couldn't imagine what it would do."

While much live coverage of the tournament remains, in England and Wales at least, behind a paywall, the ECB hopes that the publicity generated by it will overflow into the mainstream media and create a similar level of excitement as experienced during the football World Cup last year.

In a reflection of the efforts being made to capture the public imagination, Morgan and all the other World Cup captains have been invited to meet Queen Elizabeth II at a reception at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday evening, while an opening party will take place along the Mall in London.

The England squad also welcomed Gareth Southgate, the manager of the England football side, into their dressing rooms in recent times to share his experience of reaching the semi-finals of last year's World Cup in Russia. And while Morgan recognised the similar challenges facing sides who had struggled in previous tournaments, he did hint that the expectations of the teams were quite different.

"Yes, we did a session with Gareth," Morgan said. "And it was brilliant. He talked about his journey with the team in and around the World Cup and its build-up and how they built bigger expectations and came together more as a group.

"I think everybody who has been involved with our team over the last four years recognised that they are where we were two years ago and we started exactly where they did. We recognised what had happened in the past, tried to do things differently and moved forward.

"Gareth did brilliantly. They got to the semi-final and everybody said it was great. But we got knocked out of the Champions Trophy semi-final and everyone said we were crap."

Morgan, clearly, was joking on that point. However, he was not seeking to play down the expectation upon his team. Having gone into previous tournaments considered no-hopers, he relished the fact his England team are ranked No. 1 in the world and seen by many as favourites for the trophy.

"The level of expectation and favourite tags is there for a reason," he said. "Over the last two years, our form at home, in particular, has been outstanding. That's the reason the expectation is there.

"In a lot of the World Cups I've played in - or in which a couple of the guys in the changing room have played in - we've gone in with very little expectation and not done that well. I'd pick this position over any other.

"There's a lot of belief within the room. The transformation of the team has been brilliant. We're very confident within our own game."