The seventh T20 ICC Men’s World Cup got underway in Al Amerat with hosts Oman locking horns with Papua New Guinea. The global cricket piece in the shortest format of the game opened after a five-year gap. Much of the delay and the change in venues were necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oman won the toss and put T20 World Cup debutants Papua New Guinea into bat in the first fixture of Round One. Bangladesh take on Scotland in the second match later in the day.
Eight teams face off in two groups of Round One, and top two teams from each group will join the eight top-ranked sides for the Super 12. Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia are in Group A, while Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea and Oman form Group B.
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The Super 12s start in the UAE on October 23 with England, Australia, South Africa and West Indies in Group 1. India, Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan are in Group 2. After 30 matches in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, two teams from each group will progress to the semifinals before the final in Dubai on November 14.
The winners will walk away with a purse of $1.6 million (around Dh5.88 million). The runners-up get $800.000 (around Dh2.9 million), and the losing semi-finalists have to be satisfied with $400,000 (around 1.4 million) each.
West Indies are the defending champions, having beaten England in the 2016 final at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, in India.
