India to host Deaf T20 World Cup in November

NEW DELHI: India will host the Deaf ICC T20 World Cup to be held from November 23-30 in Gurgaon, the organisers announced on Thursday. The eight-day tournament will see participation from over 200 players across eight countries including England, Australia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, South Africa, apart from India, vying for the top honours. The eight teams will be divided into two groups and each team will play three matches in group stage. Two teams from each group will then qualify for the semi-finals.

India are overwhelming favourites against Bangladesh in Friday’s Asia Cup final, but victory may still only be a small step in shoring up their modest success percentage in ODI tournaments.

Their 43.65 percent puts them only at seventh, with even Zimbabwe (44.44) higher on that count. Only England and New Zealand have historically fared worse when it comes to title clashes.

Australia lead the way (65%) with South Africa (64.28), Sri Lanka (55.55), West Indies (51.06) and Pakistan (44.73) below them, followed by Zimbabwe (44.44).

However, twice World Cup winners India rise to sixth among teams that have played at least 20 finals. And 25 wins after entering the final in 63 tournaments lifts them to fourth overall if only teams with 50 or more title appearances are taken into consideration.

However, India have won the World Cup twice, a Champions Trophy (they also shared the trophy with Sri Lanka in 2002) and the Asia Cup four times.

Many fans would see an IndiaPakistan final as a more even clash owing to their deep cricketing rivalry, but Bangladesh won’t be pushovers after eliminating Pakistan on Wednesday.

PAKISTAN’S RECORD

A win would take India past Pakistan’s record – they have also won 25 ODI titles but from 57 finals.

Five-time world champions Australia are the masters at wrapping up finals.

Their record 57 victories have come from 90 finals. Sri Lanka stand second on that count, with 29 victories while India and Pakistan are tied.

West Indies have 23 titles while South Africa, still chasing their first World Cup and dubbed chokers in the tournament, have 17 wins from 28 finals.

India’s overall poor record in ODI finals is largely because of their wretched run in finals between 1999 and 2005. During this period, they made it to 18 ODI tournament finals but came off second best in 15.

In fact, they won only one final