Eleven years ago, the first edition of the ICC T20 World Cup was held in South Africa to much fan fare and excitement. With much talk about T20 cricket being the future of the game, the World Cup was heralded as the first glimpse of what we can expect in the years to come.
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The tournament was an unqualified success, with India beating arch rivals Pakistan in a thrilling final, to be crowned the inaugural T20 world champions. It was game changing moment for cricket, as within months of India’s success, the Indian Premier league was launched and forever changed the game.
The T20 World Cup was held every two years, as the shortest format of the game became a runaway success. The last one was held in India in 2016, as West Indies beat England in a nail bitter to lift their second T20 title.
After hosting the tournament every two years, the ICC decided to change the time span and have it ever four years, just like the 50-overs world cup.
The 2020 World Cup will now be hosted in Australia, with the final being held at the historic Melbourne Cricket Ground.
This will be the first time Australia are hosting a T20 world cup, and the fourth ICC event that they will host after the World Championship of Cricket in 1985 and the World Cups in 1992 and 2015.
The ICC Chief Executive David Richardson had this to say about the World Cup,
“Whether we move to perhaps an increase the size of the tournament by adding one or two teams or one team to each group in that first round, I think if we can do that number one we’ll provide more opportunities to other teams but number two, if you do lose two matches you’ve still got a chance in a group of five whereas in a group of four, you’re dead and buried.”
“That might be useful and then even maybe increasing, instead of having a Super 10 have a Super 12 maybe which will again increase the number of matches but I think it will give more opportunities for the Associate members to participate in the second round of the tournament itself.”
