Sussex star Cross tells of his England World Cup pride

Rob Cross teams up with Michael Smith for England in the World Cup of Darts

The world number five from St Leonards will team up with fourth-ranked Michael Smith on his third appearance in the global championship.

England are the top seeds for the 32-nation event in the Austrian city of Salzburg and will play the Philippines in their first-round match this afternoon (Friday).

"It's amazing every time I get to represent England," said Cross. "It's going to be my third time this year and I'm really looking forward to it - it makes you very proud to represent your country.

"Both me and Michael have been missing a few doubles recently but I've been on the practice board a lot trying to correct it, and I reckon we can have a good run."

Cross and Smith will be up against the Philippines' Lourence Ilagan and Noel Malicdem in the seventh of eight matches scheduled for this afternoon's opening session.

"The first night is maybe the most dodgy game because it's just a game of pairs and a short format, but we want to get up there and put a big performance in because they're a dangerous pairing and we'll have to play really well," added Cross.

Should they overcome the Philippines, England, who are in the opposite half of the draw to second seeds Wales and third seeds the Netherlands, will play Lithuania or Gibraltar in round two tomorrow.

Gibraltar's line-up, incidentally, includes teenager Craig Galliano, who is also a footballer on the books of Lincoln Red Imps.

The quarter-finals will take place on Sunday afternoon, with the semi-finals and final on Sunday evening.

Cross will be seeking an upturn in form having suffered first-round exits from three televised tournaments in a little over three months, although he did reach the final of the bwin World Series of Darts Finals in September.

The 2018 world champion and 2019 World Matchplay champion fell at the first hurdle in his defence of the Unibet European Championship title last weekend, losing to Dutch debutant Martijn Kleermaker.

The BetVictor World Cup of Darts will be televised on Sky Sports, as well as through the PDC's international broadcast partners including RTL7 and DAZN, as well as for PDCTV 'Rest of the World Subscribers' and on matchroom.live.