2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup

The 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the ninth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, co-hosted by Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket from 1 to 29 June 2024. It was the first major ICC tournament to include matches played in the United States. The West Indies had previously hosted the 2010 competition. A total of twenty teams competed in 55 matches across six venues in the West Indies, and three in the United States.

The number of participants was increased from sixteen to twenty teams, which included teams from the two hosts, the top eight teams from the 2022 edition, the two highest-ranked teams in the ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings not already qualified, and eight other teams determined through regional qualifiers. Canada and Uganda qualified for the men's T20 World Cup for the first time; and the United States participated for the first time by virtue of being co-hosts.

England were the defending champions and were beaten in the semi-finals by India, who went on to win their second T20 World Cup title, defeating South Africa by seven runs in the final. India won all their matches, and were the first team to win a T20 World Cup while undefeated. They joined England and West Indies as the only teams to win the title twice.

Background

The ICC Men's T20 World Cup is a biennial world cup for cricket in Twenty20 International (T20I) format, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was first played in 2007 in South Africa, and the 2024 tournament marked its ninth edition. The eighth edition, held in 2022 in Australia, was contested by 16 teams, and was won by England who defeated Pakistan in the final.

Host selection

In November 2021, as part of the 2024–2031 ICC men's hosts cycle, the ICC announced that the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup would be played in the West Indies and the United States. A joint bid had been submitted by Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket following two years of preparation, and as part of a strategic partnership between the two associations.

USA Cricket's co-hosting was part of efforts to help develop and promote cricket in the United States, where the sport's fanbase is primarily made up of South Asian Americans. Prior to this World Cup, the United States had occasionally hosted West Indies home matches at Central Broward Park in Florida. In 2023, a T20 franchise launched Major League Cricket.

Although cricket had never become mainstream in the country, the United States is associated with several notable developments in the early history of the game, including its hosting Canada in the first international cricket match, and developing the technique of swing bowling credited to American cricketer Bart King.

Format

The 20 qualifying teams were divided into four groups of five teams; the teams played each of the other four in their group—a total of ten matches per group—and the top two teams in each group advanced to the Super 8 stage. The advanced teams were divided into two groups of four teams based on pre-tournament seedings; the teams played each of the other three in that group—a total of six matches per group—and the top two teams in each group advanced to the knockout stage.

Prior to the tournament, the ICC announced the eight seeded teams for the Super 8 stage based on their T20I rankings ahead of the tournament. After advancing from the group stage, the temas were placed in predetermined positions in the Super 8 stage, irrespective of their position in the group stage. If an unseeded team qualified at the expense of a seeded team, it took the position of the corresponding seeded team that failed to qualify from their group.

Schedule

June 2024 was allocated to the tournament on the 2023–2027 ICC Men's Future Tours Programme. On 28 July 2023, ESPNcricinfo reported that the tournament would be played from 4 to 30 June 2024. The finalized schedule was announced on 5 January 2024, with the tournament scheduled to take place from 1 to 29 June. The teams played 55 matches with three cities in the United States hosting 12 matches and the rest of the matches hosted at six venues in the Caribbean. On 16 May 2024, the ICC announced that warm-up fixtures would be held from 27 May to 1 June.

Prize money

The ICC allocated a pool of $11.25 million in prize money for the tournament. The winners would be given at least $2.45 million, the highest prize money in the history of the tournament. Moreover, each team would receive an additional $31,154 for each match they won, excluding the semi-finals and final.

Marketing

The ICC hosted a trophy tour, before the tournament, which began on 19 March in New York, and the trophy was taken to various locations around the world. Former cricketers Yuvraj Singh, Chris Gayle, and Shahid Afridi, as well as Olympic athlete Usain Bolt, were named as the ambassadors of the tournament. The official theme song for the tournament, "Out of This World", produced by Tano and performed by Sean Paul and Kes, was released on 2 May 2024 under the Ineffable Records label. The song has three remix versions.

Qualification

The hosts, West Indies and the United States, along with the top eight teams from the 2022 tournament, automatically qualified for the tournament. The remaining two automatic qualification places were taken by the best-ranked teams in the ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings, which had not already qualified as of 14 November 2022. The eight remaining places were filled via the ICC's regional qualifiers, consisting of two teams from Africa, Asia, and Europe and one team each from the Americas and the East Asia-Pacific groups. In May 2022, the ICC confirmed the sub-regional qualification pathways for Europe, East Asia-Pacific, and Africa.

In July 2023, Ireland and Scotland qualified from the Europe Qualifier, followed by Papua New Guinea from the East Asia-Pacific Qualifier. Canada secured its qualification in October 2023 after winning the Americas Qualifier. The following month, Nepal and Oman qualified by reaching the final of the Asia Qualifier in Nepal. Namibia and Uganda became the final two teams to qualify after ensuring a top-two finish in the Africa Qualifier with Zimbabwe becoming the only Test-playing country that failed to qualify for the World Cup. Canada and Uganda qualified for the men's T20 World Cup for the first time, while the United States also participated for the first time by virtue of being co-host.

Venues

In May 2023, Cricket West Indies (CWI) began a bidding process for countries in the Caribbean region willing to host the matches of the World Cup. In July 2023, the ICC shortlisted four venues to host World Cup matches in the United States: Central Broward Park in Lauderhill, Florida; Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina; Grand Prairie Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas; and a temporary stadium at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York City. Residents of the Bronx objected to the Van Cortlandt Park stadium, citing that it would restrict public access to the park for an extended time, expressing concerns for its environmental impact, and questioning the economic viability of the event. On 20 September 2023, the ICC announced that Grand Prairie, Lauderhill, and New York would be the three U.S. host cities, with a 34,000-seat temporary stadium to be constructed at Eisenhower Park on Long Island in Nassau County, New York. Central Broward Park and Grand Prairie Stadium were to be expanded, with temporary grandstands and hospitality areas doubling their capacity during the tournament.

On 22 September 2023, ICC announced that venues in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago would serve as the hosts in the West Indies.Grenada, Jamaica, and Saint Kitts and Nevis did not submit bids to host the World Cup, with Jamaican sports minister Olivia Grange ruling out a bid on cost grounds. In November 2023, it was announced that Trinidad's Queen's Park Oval, the country's primary cricket venue, would not be hosting any World Cup matches and that fixtures would be moved to the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in San Fernando. Nigel Camacho, the president of the Queen's Park Cricket Club, stated that the venue would instead most likely host warm-up matches before the start of the main tournament. The Government of Dominica decided to withdraw its venue, Windsor Park, citing its inability to complete the infrastructural development of the venue before the tournament commenced.

In December 2023, a delegation of representatives from the ICC undertook an inspection of the confirmed host venues in the Caribbean and the United States, intended to finalise the fixtures for the tournament. The New York stadium was slated to host the India–Pakistan group stage match considered one of the sport's strongest rivalries. On 17 January 2024, the ICC unveiled the proposed design of the temporary New York stadium— Nassau County International Cricket Stadium—which was completed in May 2024, in time for the tournament. It marked the first temporary venue to have ever been used during an ICC World Cup.

Squads

Each team was allowed to have a squad of 15 players and required submit the provisional squad to the ICC by 1 May 2024. The teams were allowed to make changes to their squads utill 25 May. On 29 April 2024, New Zealand was the first team to announce its squad for the tournament. The following day, Afghanistan, England, India, Oman and South Africa announced their squads; followed by Australia and Nepal on 1 May; Canada on 2 May; co-hosts West Indies and the United States on 3 May; Scotland and Uganda on 6 May; Ireland and Papua New Guinea on 7 May; Sri Lanka on 9 May; Namibia on 10 May; Netherlands on 13 May; and Bangladesh on 14 May. Pakistan became the final team to announce their squad for the tournament on 24 May.

Match officials

On 3 May 2024, ICC released the list of match referees and umpires for the tournament.

; Match referees

; Umpires

Warm-up matches

The warm-up matches were played from 27 May to 1 June, involving most of the teams, except England, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa.

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Group stage

The ICC announced the groups and their fixtures on 5 January 2024, with the group stage matches being played from 1 to 17 June. The 20 teams were divided into four groups of five with each team facing the other teams in the group for a total of 40 matches. The opening match was played with co-hosts United States facing Canada in the first ever T20I match at Grand Prairie Stadium on 1 June. The Nassau County Stadium at New York hosted its first ever international match on 3 June between South Africa and Sri Lanka. The following table lists teams in order of their initial group stage seedings.

Group stage summary

Week 1

The tournament commenced on 1 June between the hosts United States and Canada, the two debutants at Grand Prairie Stadium, which also hosted its first T20I match. USA went on to register their first victory in a World Cup match across all formats. On 2 June, the second match saw the other host, West Indies taking on Papua New Guinea at Providence Stadium and emerging victorious, despite PNG's valiant efforts. The third match saw Namibia defeating Oman in the Super Over after a low scoring tied game at Kensington Oval. On 3 June, South Africa defeated the former champions Sri Lanka by six wickets after bowling them out for just 77, which was their lowest total in T20Is. The other match saw Afghanistan thrashing Uganda by 125 runs, with Afghanistan's Fazalhaq Farooqi taking his maiden T20I five-wicket haul. The sixth match at Kensington Oval, between Scotland and England had a delayed start and again was interrupted by rain thus reducing it to 10 overs per side. But after the first innings rain returned and the match was washed out. In the next match, Nepal lost to Netherlands.

On 5 June, three matches were played. In the first match, India defeated Ireland by bowling them out for 96 runs and chasing it down with 8 wickets and 46 balls to spare. In this match, India's Rishabh Pant scored his 1,000th run in T20Is. His captain Rohit Sharma achieved several career milestones by scoring his 4,000th run in T20Is, 1,000th run in T20 World Cups, 600th six in international cricket, 100th six in ICC tournaments, and also completed 300 wins in international cricket. Sharma also broke MS Dhoni's record for the most wins by an Indian captain in T20Is. In the second match that day, Uganda won their first-ever World Cup match across all formats, beating Papua New Guinea by 3 wickets in a low-scoring game at Providence. Australia began their World Cup campaign with a win against Oman, and David Warner became the leading run-scorer for Australia in T20Is, surpassing Aaron Finch's 3,120 runs.

On 6 June, Scotland beat Namibia by 5 wickets. On the same day, at Grand Prairie Stadium, the United States and Pakistan faced each other in T20Is for the first time. In the match, Pakistan's Babar Azam became the highest run-scorer in T20Is, surpassing Virat Kohli; although Pakistan lost the match in the Super Over. This match was listed by the ICC as one of the top five upsets in the history of T20 World Cup". On 7 June, Canada earned their first T20 World Cup victory, defeating Ireland by 12 runs. Elsewhere, Afghanistan earned their first win against New Zealand in T20Is, and Bangladesh earned their first T20 World Cup win against Sri Lanka in the match at Grand Prairie Stadium.

Week 2

The second week began with three matches on 8 June. South Africa defeated the Netherlands at Nassau County Stadium by 4 wickets, and Australia defeated holders England by 36 runs— Chris Jordan of England took his 100th T20I wicket. In the third match, West Indies won a one-sided contest against Uganda. West Indies scored 173/5 before blowing away Uganda for just 39, Akeal Hosein taking five wickets for eleven runs. Uganda's 39 is the joint-lowest total in T20 World Cup history. On 9 June, India met Pakistan at Nassau County, Mohammad Rizwan of Pakistan playing in his 100th T20I. Put into bat first, India were all out for 119 but their bowlers, headed by Jasprit Bumrah, restricted Pakistan to 113/7. India's total is the joint-lowest successfully defended in a T20 World Cup match. On the same day, Scotland defeated Oman by 7 wickets at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, resulting in Oman becoming the first team to be eliminated from the tournament.

In the Group D matches scheduled for 10/11 June, South Africa defeated Bangladesh by four runs, but the Nepal v. Sri Lanka match at Central Broward Park was abandoned due to rain, and these outcomes confirmed South Africa's qualification for Super 8. In Group B, Australia defeated Namibia by nine wickets, and Adam Zampa, who took four wickets, became the first Australian cricketer to take 100 wickets in T20Is. Australia's victory confirmed their qualification for Super 8, and Namibia were eliminated from the tournament. Pakistan won their Group A match against Canada, and Haris Rauf took his 100th T20I wicket. On 12 June, India and the United States faced each other for the first time in T20Is, India winning by 7 wickets to qualify for the Super 8 stage. West Indies also qualified after they defeated New Zealand by 13 runs at Brian Lara Cricket Academy. During this match, Nicholas Pooran became the leading run-scorer for West Indies in T20Is, passing Chris Gayle's 1,899 runs.

There were three matches on 13 June. In Group D, Bangladesh set a target of 160 runs but the Netherlands fell short by 25 runs. As a result, Sri Lanka were eliminated from the tournament. In Group B, England chased down Oman's target of 48 runs in just 3.1 overs. Afghanistan joined the West Indies as Group C qualifiers after they defeated Papua New Guinea by 7 wickets. New Zealand, Uganda, and Papua New Guinea were all eliminated from the tournament. The 30th match between the United States and Ireland on 14 June was abandoned due to rain, but the no result confirmed the United States' qualification for the Super 8—Canada, Ireland, and Pakistan were eliminated from the tournament. On the same day, South Africa defeated and eliminated Nepal by 1 run in a close, low-scoring encounter, while New Zealand defeated Uganda, having chased down the target of 41 runs in 5.2 overs.

Week 3

Six teams had already qualified for the Super 8, and only the Groups B and D runners-up remained to be decided. On 15 June, England defeated Namibia by 41 runs in a rain affected 10-over match which was settled using the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS). Namibia's Niko Davin became the first batter to be dismissed retired out in a T20 World Cup match during the match against England. Australia chased down the target of 181 runs set by Scotland to win by five wickets, enabling England to qualify for the Super 8 at the expense of Scotland, who were eliminated. Elsewhere, match 33 between Canada and India was abandoned due to rain.

On 16 June, Bangladesh claimed the final Super 8 spot when they beat Nepal by 21 runs. Bangladesh, batting first, were bowled out for 106, which became the lowest score defended in men's T20 World Cups after they restricted Nepal to 85. Sandeep Lamichhane took his 100th T20I wicket in the match. In the other matches on the 16th, Pakistan chased down Ireland's target of 107 with 3 wickets and 7 balls to spare, and Sri Lanka made 201/6 before bowling out the Netherlands for 118.

The group stage ended on the 17th with two matches in Group C. New Zealand defeated Papua New Guinea by 7 wickets. This was the last T20I match for Trent Boult. The last match of the group stage saw hosts West Indies beating Afghanistan by 104 runs. West Indies' Nicholas Pooran scored 36 runs in a single over against Azmatullah Omarzai, the second such instance in a T20 World Cup match and the fifth in T20Is.

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Super 8

The top two teams from groups A to D advanced to the Super 8 stage, where they were divided into two groups of four teams each. In the Super 8 stage, each team played the others in their group as a round-robin, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the knockout stage. No points were carried over from the group stage to the Super 8. Prior to the tournament, eight teams had been seeded for the Super 8 stage based on their T20I rankings at that time: Australia, India, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka in Group 1; England, Pakistan, South Africa, and the West Indies in Group 2. New Zealand, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka did not qualify for the Super 8 stage, their places taken by Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and the United States.

Super 8 summary

The twelve Super 8 matches were played between 19 and 24 June, beginning with South Africa against the United States, their first meeting in T20Is. South Africa won by 18 runs. In the second match, defending champions England faced West Indies at the Daren Sammy Ground, with England emerging victorious. The Group 1 teams were in action next day, and India scored 181/8 at Kensington Oval before bowling out Afghanistan for 134. In a rain-affected match, Australia restricted Bangladesh to 140/8 with Pat Cummins taking his maiden hat-trick in T20Is. This was the first hat-trick in the 2024 tournament, and the seventh in T20 World Cup history. The Australian innings was cut short by the rain, but they won the match as they were 28 runs ahead of their DLS par score of 72 from 11.2 overs.

In the next round of fixtures, South Africa defeated England in the first match by 7 runs. The next match was a clash of hosts, West Indies taking on the United States. Batting first, USA scored 128, and West Indies chased down the target in 10.5 overs. India scored 196/5 and then restricted Bangladesh to 146/8. Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh became the first bowler to take 50 wickets in T20 World Cup matches. The eighth match saw a huge upset, Afghanistan defeating Australia by 21 runs. Despite Australia losing, Pat Cummins took his second consecutive hat-trick in T20Is and became the only player to take more than one hat-trick in the T20 World Cup. This was the second hat-trick of the tournament and overall the eighth in the history of the T20 World Cup.

The final round began with England playing the United States, who were bowled out for 115 in the first innings. Chris Jordan took his first hat-trick in T20Is, and became the first English player to take a hat-trick in the T20 World Cup. This was the third hat-trick of the tournament, and the ninth overall in the history of the T20 World Cup. The target was then chased down in 9.4 overs, and England qualified for the semi-finals, while the United States were eliminated from the tournament. In the last match of Group 1, West Indies put up a total of 135/8. Following a brief delay for rain, South Africa's target was revised to 123 from 17 overs, and they achieved that with 5 balls to spare. This meant South Africa qualified for the semi-finals, and West Indies were eliminated.

On the last day of the Super 8, India played Australia in St Lucia. Batting first, India scored 205/5, their captain Rohit Sharma becoming the highest run-scorer in T20Is, surpassing Babar Azam; and also the first player to hit 200 sixes in T20Is. In reply, Australia scored 181/7 to lose the match by 24 runs. It was David Warner's final T20I. With this win, India qualified for the semi-finals. Later that day, Afghanistan beat Bangladesh in the final Super 8 match to advance to the knockout stage, eliminating Australia and Bangladesh. Rashid Khan took his 150th wicket in T20Is.

Group 1

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Group 2

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Knockout stage

The knockout stage consisted of two semi-finals, played at Brian Lara Cricket Academy in San Fernando on 26 June and Providence Stadium in Guyana on 27 June, and the final, at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown on 29 June. The ICC had stated that if India qualified for the semi-finals, they would play in semi-final 2 at Providence Stadium in Guyana, for the match timings to be aligned with the local time in India.

Semi-finals

In the first semi-final, Afghanistan won the toss and chose to bat. They scored just 56 runs in 11.5 overs before being bowled out. It was their lowest-ever total in T20Is, and the lowest by any team in a T20 World Cup semi-final. South Africa went on to score 60 runs in 8.5 overs, and win the match. The player of the match award was awarded to South African all-rounder Marco Jansen for taking 3 Afghan wickets. This was the first time that South Africa had reached the men's T20 World Cup final.

The second semi-final was rain-affected. India scored 171 for the loss of 7 wickets, and bowled out England for 103 in 16.4 overs. The player of the match was awarded to Indian spinner Axar Patel. India qualified for their third T20 World Cup final, having previously won the tournament in 2007 and been runners-up in 2014.

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Final

India won the toss and elected to bat first. South Africa took three early Indian wickets of Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, and Suryakumar Yadav. However, Virat Kohli and Axar Patel put on a 72-run partnership, with Patel contributing 47 runs. Kohli's 76-run innings and a late contribution of 27 by Shivam Dube helped India reach a total of 176/7, the highest first-innings total in a T20 World Cup final. South Africa's chase began with the loss of two early wickets, but Quinton de Kock and Tristan Stubbs took the total to 106. After they were both dismissed, Heinrich Klaasen made the fastest fifty in a World Cup final, including scoring 24 runs off the 15th over bowled by Axar Patel. However, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, and Hardik Pandya bowled economically in the last 5 overs while also picking up wickets. South Africa ended their innings on 169/8, losing by 7 runs.

This victory marked India's first ICC title since the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, their first world cup title since the 2011 Cricket World Cup, and their second men's T20 World Cup title with the first being the 2007 title. India also became the first team to win T20 World Cup undefeated throughout the tournament. Kohli's knock of 76 runs off 59 balls (including 6 fours and 2 sixes) earned him the player of the match award. Kohli, Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja announced their retirement from the T20I format after the final.

Statistics

Most runs

Rahmanullah Gurbaz of Afghanistan scored the most runs in the 2024 tournament (281 runs from 8 innings).

Most wickets

Fazalhaq Farooqi of Afghanistan and Arshdeep Singh of India both took 17 wickets and were tied for the most wickets in the 2024 tournament. This was also the most wickets in a T20 World Cup.

Team of the tournament

On 30 June, the ICC announced its team of the tournament with Jasprit Bumrah being named as player of the tournament for taking 15 wickets with an economy rate of 4.17, and Rohit Sharma as the captain of the team.

Broadcasting

Disney Star handled the global broadcasting rights as part of their deal with the ICC. After having introduced smartphone-oriented vertical video broadcasts at the 2023 Cricket World Cup using dedicated camera feeds, the vertical video feeds for this T20 World Cup shifted to using machine learning technology to automatically adapt the main 16:9 camera feeds to vertical and square video formats. The ICC also offered highlights from the Super 8 round onward through an immersive app for visionOS, allowing users to view presentations from various areas of the stadium.

In an effort to help promote the sport to U.S. audiences, the ICC partnered with American sports podcaster Jomboy, who has been known for producing cricket-related content targeting baseball viewers. He was hired as a contributor, including guest appearances as an analyst on selected matches to help explain the rules and strategy of the sport to new viewers.

References

External links

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International cricket competitions in 2024
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