Mansooruddin Faridi

ICC's mega event T20 World Cup 2024 is just a few days away, in which a record 20 countries are participating. The event is jointly hosted by the USA and West Indies from June 1 to June 29.

The World Cup has several unique features to make the mega cricket event more interesting and attractive.

It's the first time that two cricket boards are hosting the T20 World Cup. Earlier, the tournament was hosted 8 times by a single board. Also, it’s first time that the USA is the host of an International Cricket Council event.

The US will also host the Olympics in 2028, which, for the first time, includes cricket.

The USA will become the second associate member country to host the T20 World Cup. Associate refers to those countries that have not been given the status of Test cricket playing country by the ICC.

Earlier, the T20 World Cup 2021 was played in the associate country United Arab Emirates. However, it was organized by India as the right to host the tournament was with the BCCI.

Earlier, the Champions Trophy and the ODI World Cup were hosted by associate members. In 1998, the Champions Trophy was hosted by associate country Bangladesh, and in 1999, the ODI World Cup was hosted by England along with Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and the Netherlands.

This time 20 teams have been divided into 4 different groups of 5 teams each. The top 2 teams from each group will advance to 2 groups of the Super 8 stage.

The semi-finals will be played between the top 2 teams of both the groups and the final between the winning teams will be played in Barbados on June 29.

This time, 8 out of 20 teams have qualified for the 2022 World Cup by reaching the top 8 positions. 2 teams were placed based on ranking. USA and West Indies participated as host countries. The remaining 8 teams qualified for the tournament by winning the regional qualifiers. Canada and Uganda will debut in the T20 World Cup. America will also play the T20 World Cup for the first time.

Drop-in pitches are made outside the field. Then they are installed in the stadium. The pitch of Nassau Stadium was made in Australia. In January this year, 10 pitches were brought to Florida in America by sea, where after 5 months of preparation, they were installed in Nassau Stadium in May.

Out of 10, 6 pitches are for practice while 8 matches will be played on 4 pitches. For the first time, pitches made in another country are going to be used in the World Cup.

Till December 2023, there was no international cricket stadium in New York. A modular stadium has been built here in the last 6 months. Its pitch was imported from Australia while the stands were imported from the Formula One competition.

This stadium has a capacity of 34,000 spectators. A modular stadium will be used for the first time in the World Cup. 8 matches of the group stage will be played here, including the India-Pakistan match. The special thing is that after the tournament it will be converted into a park.

The stop clock rule will be used for the first time in the IIC tournament. The bowling team will get only 60 seconds between 2 overs. After the over is over, the third umpire will start the timer on the TV screen installed in the field. If the next over starts after 60 seconds, the field umpire will warn the captain of the fielding team twice.

If it takes more than 60 seconds to complete the next over three times in an innings, a penalty of 5 runs will be imposed. These 5 runs will be included in the score of the batting team. The bowling team will be penalized for every third mistake in the innings. The trial of this time management rule was started in December last year. Which has now been made permanent.

(The author is the editor of Awaz The Voice Urdu)