India is hosting 6th edition of 2016 ICC World Twenty20, where they will play with New Zealand on 15th March at Nagpur. While the second match of host team will be with Pakistan at Dharamshala on 19th March. The ICC has announced groups and itinerary of the tournament to be played from 8th March to 3rd April. Final match of the tournament will be played at Eden Gardens.
Both India and Pakistan were into a long debate over playing a Twin nation series, apart from title meet, but despite of series of talks occurred on political ground, nothing could be framed on cricketing relation. It will be rather more interesting to see clash between both the nations on field during World T20 tournament.
The 2016 ICC World T20 tournament will have 58 matches in total – 35 for Men’s teams and 23 for Women’s team, spread over 27 days long schedule. The semi-finals of the Men’s tournament are to be played at New Delhi and Mumbai respectively on 30 and 31 March in. The Women’s team will meet in semi-finals, which would be followed by the Men’s knock-out matches.
India, losing finalists in the 2014 edition, have been pooled with Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and the Group A winner. After the Nagpur and Dharamsala fixtures, India will meet the Group A winner in Bangalore on March 23 and Australia in Mohali on March 27. Defending champions Sri Lanka are alongside South Africa, West Indies, England and the Group B winner.
Shashank Manohar being Chairmen of ICC said “India is a country where cricket is a religion and not many places can match the passion for the game like India. I am fully confident that the Board of Control for Cricket in India will deliver an outstanding world cricket event, just like the ICC Cricket World Cups in 1987, 1996 and 2011.”
During the launch of tournament ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said “The ICC World Twenty20 is an event which puts the world’s best cricketers in the shortest format of the game against each other in a nation versus nation contest. The Twenty20 format provides the perfect vehicle by which the ICC can further globalise the game, providing international exposure and opportunity to our top Associate and Affiliate members. The ICC World Twenty20 event structure is designed to provide highly competitive matches throughout, with eight evenly-matched sides fighting it out in the first round and the best two then getting in the mix with the top eight ranked teams in the Super 10 stage where the intensity and competition will be of the very highest level.”
