T20 World Cup could reach American shores by 2024
SYDNEY: The ICC T20 World Cup could reach the American shores as early as in 2024 with the game’s global governing body expected to award a joint bid for the lucrative tournament to USA Cricket and Cricket West Indies (CWI), according to reports.
“Cricket’s governors may choose the United States as a venue for the first Twenty20 World Cup in the next events cycle as a springboard to help the game’s bid for inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics,” said a report in smh.com. au on Sunday.
The report said that the decision to award the T20 World Cup to venues, hitherto uncharted, was imminent in the next cycle, “and that an outward, global focus would mean they (tournaments) were more widely distributed than in the recent past”.
“This would be the first global tournament not hosted by either India, England or Australia since the 2014 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh. Under changes that same year wrought by the ‘Big Three’ -- the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Australia -- every event between 2015 and 2023 was awarded to one of the game’s richest three countries,” said the report.
The report said that taking the T20 World Cup to the US would also serve “as a launch pad for cricket’s long-awaited inclusion in the Olympic Games, starting with LA in 2028 and following up with Brisbane in 2032”.
According to a report in Sydney Morning Herald, a “decision on venues for ICC events in the next cycle was imminent, and that an outward, global focus would mean they were more widely distributed than in the recent past.” The ICC has been for a long time looking to give emerging countries the hosting rights for the mega events.
The 2024 T20 World Cup is expected to have 20 teams and 55 matches as compared to the 2021 and 2022 editions which have seen 16 teams playing 45 matches.
Between 2024 and 2031, the ICC is set to host several global tournaments, which will begin with the 2024 T20 World Cup.
“In addition to marking a significant move away from those years, the choice of the US to help host the 2024 tournament would also serve as a launch pad for cricket’s long-awaited inclusion in the Olympic Games, starting with LA in 2028 and following up with Brisbane in 2032,” said the report in the Australian daily.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Shaun Pollock, Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene and England’s Janete Britin on Saturday became the three latest inductees to the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Hall of Fame.
Jayawardena played 652 international matches, comprising 149 Tests, 448 ODIS and 55 T20IS. Only Sachin Tendulkar played more international matches, pipping the Sri Lankan by 12 games.
A right-hander who scored runs relentlessly and captained his country’s team, Jayawardene’s 149 Tests are the most by a Sri Lankan, as are his 448 ODIS (12,650 runs at 33.37, 19 centuries) where globally only Tendulkar (463) played more matches.
He is Test cricket’s ninth-highest run-scorer with 11,814 to his name at an average of 49.84, making the sixth most Test centuries in the format’s history. Among his 34 centuries is the famous 374 -- Test cricket’s fourth-highest score -- he made in the midst of a record-seting 624-run stand with Kumar Sangakkara against South Africa in 2006.