T20 World Cup to go all guns blazing on October 17 with final scheduled on November 14: Report

T20 WC 2021

Just a couple of days ago, New Zealand defeated Team India in the ICC World Test Championship Final at The Rose Bowl in Southampton to clinch a major ICC trophy. Kiwis outsmarted Indians by 8 wickets and won the inaugural edition of the marquee clash where Kyle Jamieson was named the player of the match for taking 7 wickets.

Soon after this ICC event came to a close, meanwhile fans are eagerly waiting for the upcoming T20 World Cup which is scheduled to be held this year. In a sensational development, a report in ESPN Cricinfo mentioned that the ICC T20 World Cup is expected to be held from October 17. 

The tournament will go all guns blazing only 2 days after the IPL final which is slated to be held in the United Arab Emirates. The T20 World Cup final is scheduled to be held on November 14, a report in ESPN Cricinfo further added in a statement. 

Major development in the United Arab Emirates

Meanwhile, the UAE will be hosting two tournaments. At first, the rest of the 31 fixtures will be played there and after which, the T20 World Cup will get underway. The revised IPL is scheduled for September 19 and it will come to a close on October 15.

The Indian governing body is yet to communicate anything officially to the International Cricket Council and the planning of the tournament is still going on. Meanwhile, the first round of the tournament will be divided into two groups and will be held in UAE and Oman.

The report states further, “Round 1, which will include 12 matches, will comprise eight teams from which four (top two from each group) would qualify for the Super 12s. Four teams from this lot of eight – Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia, Oman, Papua New Guinea – will then progress to the Super 12s, joining the top eight ranked T20I teams.”

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“The Super 12s phase, comprising 30 matches, is scheduled to start from October 24. The Super 12s, where teams will be split across two groups of six each, will be played at three venues in the UAE – Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. This will be followed by three playoff games – the two semi-finals and the final.”

With round 1 being co-hosted by either of the venues in the UAE and Oman, BCCI is certain that it will prepare fresh pitches in the UAE ahead of Super 12s. Earlier a senior BCCI official told PTI that they had already informed ICC about its inability to host the marquee event in India internally for obvious reasons.

“Yes, the BCCI, during the ICC board meeting, has formally asked for a four-week window to take a final call but, internally, they have said that they would like to keep the hosting rights and wouldn’t mind the tournament being held in UAE and Oman,” a BCCI official privy to ICC board developments, told PTI.