T20 World Cup

The 2024 Men's T20 World Cup, a highly anticipated international cricket tournament, is set to take place from June 4 to 30, 2024, in the Caribbean and the USA. The tournament will feature teams from around the world and will be hosted across 10 different venues, marking the first time that the USA will host an international global cricket event. An ICC team recently conducted inspections of potential venues in the USA, including Lauderhill in Florida, Morrisville, Dallas, and New York, for both tournament matches and warm-up games.

Notably, Morrisville and Dallas are presently hosting the inaugural edition of Major League Cricket in the USA. These venues are in the process of obtaining international venue status, as required by ICC rules, and a final decision on their inclusion will be made by the ICC in collaboration with Cricket West Indies (CWI) and USA Cricket (USAC) in the coming months.

The event recently witnessed the qualification of Ireland, Scotland, and Papua New Guinea through the regional qualifiers pathway established by the ICC. These teams earned their spots in the 20-team T20 World Cup, with PNG topping the East Asia-Pacific Qualifier and Ireland and Scotland securing the top two positions in the Europe Region Qualifier. Qualifiers from the Americas, Africa, and Asia regions will be determined in the forthcoming months.

Twelve teams had already secured their spots in the tournament before the regional qualifiers, including hosts West Indies and the USA, along with the top eight teams from the 2022 T20 World Cup: Australia, England, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan and Bangladesh also qualified based on their T20I rankings, completing the 20-team roster.

The 2024 T20 World Cup will feature a modified format compared to the last two editions, with the 20 teams initially divided into four groups of five in the first round. The top two teams from each group will advance to the Super 8s stage. The Super 8 teams will then be split into two groups of four each, with the top two from each group progressing to the semi-finals.

This event holds significant importance as it marks the beginning of the ICC's next commercial cycle from 2024 to 2031, which was finalized in 2021. The decision to co-host the tournament in the USA is part of the ICC's strategic plan, with two primary goals: to tap into the North American market for cricket's growth and to promote cricket's inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games (LA28). The ICC has presented its case to the LA28 organizing committee, and a final decision regarding cricket's inclusion in LA28 will be made by the International Olympics Committee later this year.