The seventh edition of T20 World Cup is set to get underway on October 17 in UAE, two days after the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 final, ESPNcricinfo reported on Friday (June 25).
According to the report, the final of the global tournament will be played on November 14.
The upcoming T20 World Cup, which will be a 16-team competition, was slated to be held in India but there have been talks of moving the marquee event to UAE because of the grim COVID-19 situation in the cricket crazy nation.
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The report suggests that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is yet to write to the International Cricket Council (ICC) formally.
"Round 1, which will include 12 matches, will comprise eight teams from which four (top two from each group) would qualify for the Super 12s," a report published in ESPNcricinfo stated.
"Four team from this lot of eight - Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia, Oman, Papua New Guinea - will then progress to the Super 12s, joining the top eight ranked T20I teams," the report further read.
Notably, Round 1 will be co-hosted by one of the venues in UAE and Oman between October 17 and October 23. Hence, the BCCI is confident that UAE’s main grounds will get sufficient time to freshen up before the Super 12s.
The Super 12s phase, comprising 30 games, is slated to kick off from October 24 across the three venues in UAE – Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
Following the Super 12s phase, three knockout games will be played – the two semi-finals and the final.
After its board meeting on June 1, ICC had stated that Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah will be hosting the matches if the tournament gets moved out of India while the governing body was on the lookout for another venue in the Middle East.
ICC had also clarified that the BCCI will retain their hosting rights irrespective of where the event is played.
"A final decision on the host country will be taken later this month. The Board also confirmed that the BCCI will remain the hosts of the event regardless of where the event is played," the ICC said in an official release.
(Inputs from ESPNcricinfo)
