The T20 World Cup is here and the fact that it is starting just after the end of a heart-pumping season of the Indian Premier League 2021 might have taken the buzz away from its start. But if cricket fans were thinking their life was going to feel empty and they were to have withdrawal symptoms of the T20 bonanza after the IPL, there is nothing to worry about as yet another month-long roller coaster ride is loading in form of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
But where does it all begin?
The tournament begins with a qualifying round or round one as it is called were eight teams, six of which came after a gruelling qualification tournament in 2019 and two on the basis of being the lowest-ranked teams in the top 10 of the ICC T20I rankings at the time of the qualification window.
Thus the eight teams participating in the first round are Bangladesh and Sri Lanka from the top 10 and Ireland, Papua New Guinea, the Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia and Oman. These eight teams have been divided into two groups of four each named Group A and Group B.
While Group A has Bangladesh, Scotland, PNG and Oman in it, Group B has Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia. The matches of Group A will take place at Al Amrat Stadium in Muscat, Oman while Group B matches will take place at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
But were UAE and Oman the hosts of this World Cup?
No, UAE and Oman are not the hosts of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, rather it was India. Actually, the 2021 World Cup was supposed to happen after the 2020 World Cup in Australia, but due to the pandemic it was postponed and India, who had to host the 2021 T20 World Cup, got the hosting rights of the next event. Now the 2020 T20 World cup will take place in 2022.
But as soon as India got the hosting rights of the next World Cup, a belligerent wave of the Covid-19 struck the country and lakhs of lives were lost. It led to the IPL 2021 being hated midway and postponed to UAE, which was completed just now.
To avoid any such circumstances where the country would have to halt the World Cup, the Board of Control for Cricket in India opted for UAE and Oman as the two venues of the World Cup while keeping the hosting rights with themselves.
With this, another issue of tax exceptions, that BCCI was seeking from the Indian government for the World Cup was also avoided, although the board would now have to share the revenue with Oman Cricket and Emirates Cricket Board.
The top two teams from both Group A and B would qualify for the next round called the Super 12. The top eight ranked T20I teams, which are part of this World Cup will join the four Round 1 qualifiers in the Super 12. The eight teams have already been divided into two groups each and slots have been identified for four qualifiers as well.
Group 1 has Australia, England, South Africa and defending champions West Indies in it and will accommodate the winner of Group B and runner up of Group A. Group 2 on the other and have hosts India, its arch-rivals Pakistan, their neighbours Afghanistan and World Test Championship winners New Zealand. This group will accommodate winners of Gropu A which might be Bangladesh and runners of Group B. Thus it makes up for an almost all-Asian group in many senses.
After the Super 12, the top two teams from each group will advance for Semi-Finals. The matches of the Super 12 stage will be played in Dubai and Sharjah along with Abu Dhabi, which is used for the Round 1 games as well.
In the case of tied games, the matches regardless of their stage in the tournament will have continuous super overs until and unless a winner is decided. In case of bad weather in tied games, each team will receive one point each.
In case two teams are tied at the same number of points, net run rate, number of wins and losses and then further win and losses against each other would decide the winner among them.
Even after this, if a winner is not decided, the net run rate of both the teams before they clashed with each other will be checked, even if that is tied then their rankings before the World Cup would be the detrimental factor.
There is also a provision of Decision Review System in this edition of the World Cup and each team will have two reviews per inning.
The ICC released a list of broadcasters of the tournament all across the world. According to it, Star Sports and its digital wing Disney Hotstar will have exclusive broadcast and live stream rights for the tournament in India. Star Sports Network will also have broadcast rights in Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. In Pakistan, PTV Sports and Asports will broadcast the tournament while people can also follow the live streaming on Daraz App and its website.
In Bangladesh, G-TV, T-Sports and BTV have broadcast rights while live streaming will be available on Rabbithole, Bioscope and MyGP. In Afghanistan, national broadcaster RTA Sports and private channel Ariana TV will broadcast the biggest T20 tournament in the world.
In major cricketing nations such as Australia, England, New Zealand South Africa, Fox Cricket, Sky Cricket, Sky Sport 3 and SuperSport Cricket will respectively broadcast the World Cup. In West Indies, ESPN has both the broadcast as well as digital rights of the tournament.
In the USA and Canada, Willow will broadcast the cricket games while in Papua New Guinea and other pacific island nations, TVWAN Action has the broadcast rights.
The winner of the T20 World Cup 2021 will get a whopping $1.6 Million while the Runners-Up will get $800,00. The two losing semi-finalists will get $400,00 each while the rest of the eight members making it to the Super 12 will get $70,000 each. The four teams unable to make it past Round 1 will get $40,000 each.
Apart from per team prizes, there are also prizes for wins at Round 1 and Super 12 stages. Each win at Round 1 and Super 12 will fetch a team $40,000. In total, the ICC will be spending an amount equal to $5.6 Million in prize money.
The extravaganza will begin with the Round 1 games on October 17 when Oman will take on Papua New Guinea in the Cup opener at the Al Amrat Ground. On the very same day, Bangladesh will play Scotland at the same venue.
The Super 12 round will begin on October 23 where Australia will clash with South Africa at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi in the day game while last edition’s finalists England and West Indies will go head to head in the evening match at Dubai International Stadium.
The hosts India will open its campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan at the Dubai International Stadium on October 24.