The United States will co-host a major international cricket event for the first time after the ICC announced that the U.S. and West Indies will co-host the Men’s Twenty20 World Cup in 2024.
This will be the fourth occasion the West Indies will be hosting a World Cup event on behalf of the ICC. Twenty nations will compete in four groups in a tournament to be played over 25 days starting in June 2024.
The 2024 event will see two-thirds of the 55 matches held in the Carribean at 13 grounds in the West Indies. Five U.S. venues are set to stage around a third of the games at the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, which will be co-hosted by the West Indies. There will be up to five venues used in the United States although locations for those matches is yet to be determined.
“For USA Cricket and Cricket West Indies to have been awarded the co-hosting of the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is a huge statement of intent from the sport on the potential for cricket in the Americas region,” said USA Cricket’s Iain Higgins. “USA Cricket is incredibly grateful to the ICC Board for showing faith in the partnership to make history in 2024. The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be delivered in a way that has the potential to break attendance and broadcast viewership records and set a new benchmark for commercial success, staging matches in broadcast prime-time to audiences around the world and inviting new public and private partnerships from corporate America for the ICC and its members to develop over the next eight years of ICC event.”
There currently is only one ICC-certified stadium in the U.S., Central Broward Regional Park Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida. In a statement, USA Cricket said of its venues, “some of which are already ICC-approved for international cricket, some of which are under construction and some of which will be repurposed specifically to host World Cup matches. All of the venues across both countries will be selected following a competitive tender process to be run over the coming months.”
The ICC’s decision to have the United States as a co-host for 2024 is part of the federation’s push to have cricket added to the schedule for the 2028 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles.
“We are overjoyed with today’s news after what has been a massive piece of work with our friends at Cricket West Indies to put together the winning bid for the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup,” said USA Cricket Board Chair Paraag Marathe. “The ICC has identified the USA as a strategic market for growth that will benefit cricket around the world. A major event in 2024 will be the critical catalyst to improve facilities, develop a professional league, grow the fanbase and inspire public and corporate support.”
The announcement comes on the same week that Higgins also announced that he would be leaving as CEO.
“The entire Board would like to thank Iain for the commitment, drive and vision that he has displayed in the role over the past couple of years,” Marathe said. “Iain has also been the driving force behind USA Cricket’s current bid to co-host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2024 together with Cricket West Indies and we are hopeful that event will be the lasting legacy of his tenure with USA Cricket. We wish Iain the best in wherever his career takes him next.”
2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
| June 2024 – |
| International Cricket Council |
| Twenty20 International |
| Group stage and knockout |
| 20 |
| 55 |
← 2022 2026 → |
The 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup will be the ninth ICC Men's T20 World Cup, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament. It is scheduled to be played in June 2024 in the West Indies and the United States,[1] and will be the first ICC World Cup tournament to feature matches played in the United States.[2]
Host selection[edit]
In November 2021, the International Cricket Council [ICC] announced that the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup would be played in the West Indies and the United States.[3] A joint bid was submitted by Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket following two years of preparation, forming part of a strategic partnership between the two associations.[4]
In October 2022, it was reported that the ICC had stripped USA Cricket of its role as administrative co-host of the World Cup due to continued non-compliance with the ICC's financial protocols and concerns being raised over USA Cricket's financial position, including debts of approximately $650,000. This was not expected to impact the playing of matches in the country.[5]
Format[edit]
The 20 qualifying teams will be divided into four groups of five, from which the top two teams in each group advance to the Super 8 round. In this stage, the remaining teams will be split in two groups of four; the top two teams from each group will qualify for the knockout stage, which will consist of two semi-finals and a final.[6]
Teams and qualifications[edit]
The top eight teams from the 2022 tournament, along with the two hosts, the West Indies and the United States, qualified automatically for the tournament. The remaining automatic qualification places [to give 12 teams in total] were taken by the best-ranked teams in the ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings, as of 14 November 2022, who had not already secured a place in the finals.[7]
As the USA and West Indies did not finish in the top eight of the 2022 tournament, this meant the two highest-ranked unqualified teams from the ICC rankings advanced to the 2024 edition; had either host finished in the top eight, their slot would have been passed down to the next best-ranked unqualified teams as required.[8] The eight remaining places will be filled via the ICC's regional qualifiers, comprising the top two teams from Africa, Asia, and Europe, along with one team each from the Americas and the East Asia-Pacific groups.[9] In May 2022, the ICC confirmed the sub-regional qualification pathways for Europe, East Asia-Pacific, and Africa.[10]
| Hosts | — | — | 2 | |
| 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup [Top 8 teams from the previous tournament] | November 2022 | 8 | ||
| ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings [Next 2 teams from the ICC T20I team rankings] | 14 November 2022 | 2 | ||
| Africa Qualifier | 2 | |||
| Americas Qualifier | 1 | |||
| Asia Qualifier | 2 | |||
| East Asia-Pacific Qualifier | 1 | |||
| Europe Qualifier | 2 | |||
References[edit]
- ^ "USA to stage T20 World Cup: 2024-2031 ICC Men's tournament hosts confirmed". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ^ "2024 T20 World Cup: USA granted automatic qualification". BBC Sport. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
- ^ "USA to stage T20 World Cup: 2024-2031 ICC Men's tournament hosts confirmed". International Cricket Council. 16 November 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ^ "Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket hail successful joint bid to host ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2024". USA Cricket. 16 November 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ^ "USA cricket running afoul of ICC financial protocols". ESPNcricinfo. 3 October 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
- ^ "ICC announces major changes to World Cup schedule". cricket.com.au. 2 June 2021. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
- ^ "Twelve teams to get automatic entry into 2024 men's T20 World Cup". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ^ "Denmark, Italy one step from T20 World Cup 2024 as Europe qualification continues". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
- ^ "Qualification pathway for marquee ICC events confirmed". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ^ "Qualification pathway for ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 announced". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 31 May 2022.