2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

The 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is the seventh ICC Men’s T20 World Cup tournament,[3][4] with the matches taking place in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from 17 October to 14 November 2021.[5][6] The West Indies are the defending champions.[7][8]

There was due to be a preceding 2020 T20 World Cup held in Australia from 18 October to 15 November 2020,[9][10][11] but in July 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that this tournament had been postponed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[12][13][14] In August 2020, the ICC confirmed that India would host the 2021 tournament as planned, with Australia being named as the host for the succeeding 2022 tournament.[15] However, in June 2021, the ICC announced that the tournament had been moved to the United Arab Emirates due to growing concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic situation in India, and a possible third wave of the pandemic in the country.[16] The tournament began on 17 October 2021,[5] with the tournament’s final scheduled to be played on 14 November 2021.[17] The preliminary rounds of the tournament are being played in the UAE and Oman.[18]

Background

In April 2020, the ICC confirmed that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was still planned to go ahead as scheduled.[19][20] However, the following month a senior ICC official said that it would be “too big a risk” to host the tournament in 2020,[21] The ICC also stated that reports of postponing the tournament were inaccurate, with multiple contingency plans being looked at.[22] A decision on the tournament was originally deferred until the ICC’s meeting on 10 June 2020,[23] with a further announcement scheduled to be made in July 2020.[24] In June 2020, Earl Eddings, the chairman of Cricket Australia, said that it was “unlikely” and “unrealistic” that the tournament would take place in Australia as scheduled. Eddings also suggested that Australia could host the event in October 2021, and India stage the tournament a year later in 2022. The ICC also considered moving the tournament to be played around the next Women’s ODI World Cup, which was originally scheduled to take place in New Zealand for February 2021.[25]

A month before the official postponement, Australian federal tourism minister Simon Birmingham announced that the Australian government expected that the country’s borders would be closed to international travel until 2021.[26] The ICC also confirmed that either Australia or India, the hosts for the tournaments originally scheduled to take place in 2020 and 2021 respectively, would host this tournament.[27][28] In August 2020, the ICC confirmed that India are expected to host the 2021 tournament, with Australia expected to the 2022 tournament.[29] In the same month, the ICC confirmed that Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates were being considered as back-up venues for the tournament.[30] In April 2021, the ICC’s CEO Geoff Allardice confirmed that back-up plans were still in place if India were unable to host the tournament due to the pandemic.[31] Later the same month, Dhiraj Malhotra of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that the UAE would be used as a contingency,[32] if the pandemic in India continued to get worse.[33] The BCCI were also in talks with Oman as a potential co-host of the tournament.[34] On 1 June 2021, the ICC gave the BCCI the deadline of 28 June 2021 to make its decision on where the tournament would be played.[35] Regardless of the actual location of the tournament, the ICC also confirmed that the BCCI would remain as the hosts of the competition.[36] Later, the ICC confirmed that the tournament had been moved to the UAE and Oman.[6] It was the first time for both the UAE and Oman to be hosting a global ICC event, and also the first occasion that a cricket World Cup was being held entirely outside of the Test-playing nations.[37]

Less than two weeks before the start of the tournament, Oman was impacted by Cyclone Shaheen which passed only a few miles north of the tournament venue in Al-Amerat. Pankaj Khimji, chairman of Oman Cricket, stated that “we were so close to being virtually wiped out […] had this had happened over here in this area, I’d have said goodbye to the World Cup”.[38]

Teams and qualification

As of 31 December 2018, the top nine ranked ICC Full Members, alongside hosts India, qualified directly for the 2021 tournament.[39][40] Of those ten teams, the top eight ranked sides qualified for the Super 12s stage of the tournament.[39] Sri Lanka and Bangladesh did not qualify for the Super 12s, instead being placed in the group stage of the competition.[39] They were joined by the six teams who had qualified for the tournament via the 2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier.[39] Of the teams in the ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings, the United Arab Emirates and Nepal could only qualify through regional competitions.[11] The top four teams from the group stage will then advance to the Super 12s.[39]

Papua New Guinea were the first team to secure their position via the Qualifier, after they won Group A of the tournament, finishing above the Netherlands on net run rate.[41] It was the first time that Papua New Guinea had qualified for a World Cup in any format.[42] Ireland became the second team to qualify via this route after they won Group B, also on net run rate.[43]

In the first match in the playoffs, the Netherlands qualified for the T20 World Cup when they beat the United Arab Emirates by eight wickets, after the UAE only scored 80 runs in their innings.[44] The second qualifier match saw Namibia advance to their first T20 World Cup after beating Oman by 54 runs.[45] Scotland beat tournament hosts the United Arab Emirates in the third qualifier by 90 runs to secure their place in the T20 World Cup.[46] Oman become the final team to qualify for the T20 World Cup, when they beat Hong Kong by 12 runs in the last playoff match.[47]

In August 2021, concerns and doubts were raised over the participation of Afghanistan cricket team in the tournament ever since Afghanistan was brought under the control of the Taliban.[48] Afghanistan’s team media manager Hikmat Hassan confirmed that Afghanistan would play in the T20 World Cup, despite the political turmoil in the country.[49] On 6 October 2021, the Afghanistan team left Kabul, travelling to Doha, Qatar, for a training camp before the start of the tournament.[50]

Squads

Each team selected a squad of 15 players before 10 October 2021.[53] Each team was also able to select up to seven additional players, if needed, with regards to COVID-19.[54] On 10 August 2021, New Zealand were the first team to announce their squad for the tournament.[55] All the teams announced their preliminary squads by 12 September 2021.[56]

Schedule and broadcasting

With a total of 45 matches, the T20 World Cup will be composed of two rounds. Round 1 will include twelve matches between eight teams (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia, Oman and Papua New Guinea) from which four teams will progress to the Super 12s.[57] The Super 12s, scheduled to start from 24 October 2021, will consist of 30 matches between the four teams from Round 1 and the top eight ranked T20I teams. If Sri Lanka or Bangladesh qualify from their first round groups, they will retain their respective seedings of A1 or B1 for the Super 12s.[58] Those teams will be split into two groups of six each. This will be followed by the two semi-finals and then the final.[5] On 16 July 2021, the ICC confirmed the groups for the tournament,[59] which were decided on the rankings of the teams as of 20 March 2021.[60] On 17 August 2021, the ICC confirmed the final fixtures for the tournament including the first round and super 12 matches.[61]

The ICC named all of the official broadcasters for the tournament on its website, including details on television coverage, digital content for in-match clips and highlights, and audio listings.[62]

Venues

On 17 April 2021, the BCCI proposed the name of the cities which are scheduled to be hosting the matches.[63] Bangalore, Chennai, Dharamshala, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, and New Delhi were the venues along with Ahmedabad, hosting the final of the event.[64] On 18 April 2021, it was announced that Pakistan would play two of their group matches in Delhi, while Mumbai and Kolkata would host the semi-finals.[65] On 28 June 2021, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly confirmed that due to the COVID-19 situation in the country the board has officially communicated to the ICC about their decision to move the event from India to the UAE.[66] Some of the preliminary round matches of the event are also set to be held in Oman.[67][68] On 29 June 2021, the ICC confirmed that the T20 World Cup would be played in the UAE and Oman.[69] The tournament will take place in four venues: the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, and the Oman Cricket Academy Ground.[70] During July 2021, the Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi was awaiting accreditation by the ICC to also be used as one of the venues for the tournament.[71]

Prize money

On 10 October 2021, the ICC announced the prize money for the tournament.^[76]

Stage	Prize money (US$)	Teams/matches	Total
Winners	$1.6 million	1	$1.6 million
Runner-up	$800,000	1	$800,000
Losing semi-finalists	$400,000 each	2	$800,000
Bonus for winning a “Super 12” match	$40,000 per match	30	$1,200,000
Teams get knocked out in the “Super 12 stage”	$70,000 each	8	$560,000
Bonus for winning a “First round” match	$40,000 per match	12	$480,000
Teams get knocked out in the “First round”	$40,000 each	4	$160,000
Total	$5.6 million

 

T20 World Cup 2021 Schedule

All the match start times (hours) are given in India Standard Time (IST)

Round 1 Fixture:

Match No	Date	Match Centers	Time	Venue
1	17-Oct-21	Oman Vs Papua New Guinea	3:30 PM	Muscat
2	17-Oct-21	Bangladesh Vs Scotland	7:30 PM	Muscat
3	18-Oct-21	Ireland Vs Netherlands	3:30 PM	Abu Dhabi
4	18-Oct-21	Sri Lanka  Vs Namibia	7:30 PM	Abu Dhabi
5	19-Oct-21	Scotland Vs Papua New Guinea	3:30 PM	Muscat
6	19-Oct-21	Oman Vs Bangladesh	7:30 PM	Muscat
7	20-Oct-21	Namibia Vs Netherlands	3:30 PM	Abu Dhabi
8	20-Oct-21	Sri Lanka  Vs Ireland	7:30 PM	Abu Dhabi
9	21-Oct-21	Bangladesh Vs Papua New Guinea	3:30 PM	Muscat
10	21-Oct-21	Oman Vs Scotland	7:30 PM	Muscat
11	22-Oct-21	Namibia Vs Ireland	3:30 PM	Sharjah
12	22-Oct-21	Sri Lanka  Vs Netherlands	7:30 PM	Sharjah

Super 12 – Group 1 Fixture :