The ICC Men's T20 World Cup (earlier known as ICC World Twenty20) is the international championship of Twenty20 cricket. Organised by cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), the tournament currently consists of 16 teams, comprising the top ten teams from the rankings at the given deadline and six other teams chosen through the T20 World Cup Qualifier.


The event has generally been held every two years. However, the 2020 edition of the tournament was scheduled to take place in 2020 in Australia, but due to COVID-19, the tournament was postponed to 2021, with the host changed to India, five years after the conclusion of the 2016 edition. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, the matches were relocated to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman.In May 2016, the ICC put forward the idea of having a tournament in 2018, with South Africa being the possible host. But at the conclusion of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, the ICC dropped the idea of 2018 edition.

Background

When the Benson & Hedges Cup ended in 2002, the ECB needed another one day competition to fill its place. Cricketing authorities were looking to boost the game's popularity with the younger generation in response to dwindling crowds and reduced sponsorship. It was intended to deliver fast-paced, exciting cricket accessible to thousands of fans who were put off by the longer versions of the game. Stuart Robertson, the marketing manager of the ECB, proposed a 20 over per innings game to county chairmen in 2001 and they voted 11–7 in favour of adopting the new format.


Domestic tournaments

Bangladesh vs South Africa at the 2007 tournament

The first official Twenty20 matches were played on 13 June 2003 between the English counties in the Twenty20 Cup.The first season of Twenty20 in England was a relative success, with the Surrey Lions defeating the Warwickshire Bears by 9 wickets in the final to claim the title.[11] The first Twenty20 match held at Lord's, on 15 July 2004 between Middlesex and Surrey, attracted a crowd of 27,509, the largest attendance for any county cricket game at the ground other than a one-day final since 1953.

Soon after with the adoption of Twenty20 matches by other cricket boards, the popularity of the format grew with unexpected crowd attendance, new domestic tournaments such as Pakistan's Faysal Bank T20 Cup and Stanford 20/20 tournament, and the financial incentive in the format.

Twenty20 Internationals

On 17 February 2005 Australia defeated New Zealand in the first men's full international Twenty20 match, played at Eden Park in Auckland. The game was played in a light-hearted manner – both sides turned out in kit similar to that worn in the 1980s, the New Zealand team's a direct copy of that worn by the Beige Brigade. Some of the players also sported moustaches/beards and hair styles popular in the 1980s taking part in a competition amongst themselves for best retro look, at the request of the Beige Brigade. Australia won the game comprehensively, and as the result became obvious towards the end of the NZ innings, the players and umpires took things less seriously – Glenn McGrath jokingly replayed the Trevor Chappell underarm incident from a 1981 ODI between the two sides, and Billy Bowden showed him a mock red card (red cards are not normally used in cricket) in response.


Inaugural tournaments


Lasith Malinga bowling to Shahid Afridi in the 2009 Final at Lord's.

It was first decided that every two years an ICC World Twenty20 tournament is to take place, except in the event of a Cricket World Cup being scheduled in the same year, in which case it will be held the year before. The first tournament was in 2007 in South Africa where India defeated Pakistan in the final.[19] Kenya and Scotland had to qualify via the 2007 ICC World Cricket League Division One which was a 50-over competition that took place in Nairobi.[20] In December 2007 it was decided to hold a qualifying tournament with a 20-over format to better prepare the teams. With six participants, two would qualify for the 2009 World Twenty20 and would each receive $250,000 in prize money. The second tournament was won by Pakistan who beat Sri Lanka by 8 wickets in England on 21 June 2009. The 2010 ICC World Twenty20 tournament was held in West Indies in May 2010, where England defeated Australia by 7 wickets. The 2012 ICC World Twenty20 was won by the West-Indies, by defeating Sri Lanka at the finals. For the first time, a host nation competed in the final of the ICC World Twenty20. There were 12 participants for the title including Ireland and Afghanistan as 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. It was the first time the T20 World Cup tournament took place in an Asian country.

Final tournament

In each group stage (both the preliminary round and the Super 12 round), teams are ranked against each other based on the following criteria:

Higher number of points

If equal, higher number of wins

If still equal, higher net run rate

If still equal, lower bowling strike rate

If still equal, result of head-to-head meeting.

In case of a tie (that is, both teams scoring the same number of runs at the end of their respective innings), a Super Over would decide the winner. In the case of a tie occurring again in the Super Over, subsequent super overs would be played until there is a winner. Earlier, the match would be won by the team that had scored the most boundaries in their innings.During the 2007 tournament, a bowl-out was used to decide the loser of tied matches.