FAQS
Follow UsI was still an out and out human being and not a writing machine the last time I saw Marc Shorin, my American roommate during my college’s summer semester. He was an exchange student from Princeton University, here to study the inner workings of Indian democracy.
Alas, he exchanged only two things in his short stay which was abruptly punctuated by the top quality food served in our hostel’s mess — he got a basic understanding of cricket from me, and understood that he actually liked this sport a lot because the pitcher (bowler) here actually pitches the ball and not just slings it in the air.
And guess who called me to talk about the World Cup starting tomorrow (India time) in the United States of America and the West Indies? Marc Shorin!
MS: Hey GNT! Dude what’s all this noise in New York about the T20 World Cup man? There were advertisements flashing at the Times Square about it. I saw that bearded Virat [Kohli] guy you mentioned on it as well.
GNT: Oh yeah! The ICC is hosting the Men’s T20 World Cup in both United States of America and the West Indies in 2024. It’s gonna be so exciting. A marquee event that actually feels like a World Cup because for the first time there are 20 teams participating in the tournament.
So apart from the usual full member cricketing nations, you have countries like Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Namibia, Oman, Nepal, Scotland, Netherlands, Canada, and the United States of America also participating.
You can find all the squads here.
Also you know Marc, they’ve built an entire stadium from scratch in Eishenhower Park of the Nassau County in just a few months! Plus the Grand Prairire Stadium in Dallas (which was used in the Major League Cricket last year) and the Miami stadium are there to be used as well.
It’s really exciting man!
MS: Bro calm down this is too much information all at once (laughs loudly) but wait, ARE USA REALLY PARTICIPATING? This is huge man!
GNT: Oh yeah! It is. In fact the first game of the World Cup is between USA and Canada (Marc snorted out a weird grunt as soon as he heard Canada) in a few hours from now.
MS: Man I really hope we beat Canada though. They’ve plastered us so many times at [Ice] Hockey, I don’t want yet another sport where those maple syrup guys beat us. Are we [USA] a good side?
GNT: Well, I’ll recommend you check out the great work my colleagues Pramod Ananth and Aakash Sivasubramaniam have done on that front. In fact not only USA, we have covered all the countries and their sides in detail at Cricket.com.
MS: Dude stop sucking up to your colleagues once again! They’ll not give you extra hike for it. Just tell me more about this World Cup thingy.
GNT: Hey, dude are you drunk in the morning itself? Shut up. Let me tell you more about the tournament.
So as I said before, the World Cup begins on June 1 for you (June 2 India time) and will run until June 29. You can check the schedule here. You can see there that apart from the three venues in the USA, the Caribbean would have six venues and the final will be played at Barbados.
Hey also you know they dropped some pitches from Australia straight into New York?
(Upon seeing Marc’s confused face) You can read this article I wrote man on them man. And dare you say something about self promotion!
MS: What’s the format like?
GNT: The 20 teams are divided into four groups of five team each. You can check them here. The teams in the same group will play each other once, and then the two best teams from each group will move on to the Super Eights.
Then in the Super Eights, you’ll have two groups of four team each. The teams have also been allotted pre-decided seedings (based on their rankings and performance), and these teams will retain these seedings in the Super Eights stage irrespective of whether they finish first or second in their group.
The fixtures have also been decided according to that. For eg: If India and Pakistan finish as A1 and A2 in their group, they will be A1 and A2 in the Super Eight stage regardless of finishing first or second.
Also no points will be carried forward from the group stage to the next stage.
Meanwhile, the top two teams from each group of the two groups in Super Eight will progress to the semi-finals. Also, teams reaching the Super Eight will qualify directly for the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
MS: What’s the points system like then? Also what happens if a match is tied?
GNT: A team will get two points for a win, one for a no result (abandoned or washed out due to rain) and zero points for losing.
In case there’s a tie and scores are level, a Super Over will be played. Remember I showed you the highlights of one such game in the Student Residence? Also in case that Super Over is also tied, the two teams will keep playing Super Overs until a team wins.
MS: That’s fair. But man it’s raining quite a bit nowadays in Dallas area. What happens if a game is rained out?
GNT: So just in case it rains a lot during the games of the group stages of the Super Eight, each team will have to bat a minimum of five overs for a result to be attained.
However, the semi-finals and the final will require teams to bat minimum 10 overs. Additionally, the first semi-final and the final will have a reserve day, but not the second semi final, because of the one-day gap before the final which the winning team would need to travel for the final.
Rather ICC has added 250 extra minutes to complete that game. Also it’s certain that India will play the second semi-final if they get there.
In case the semi-finals are abandoned, the team that finished first in their group in the Super Eight stage will qualify for the final. However, if the final (of the Super Over in case of a tied game) is abandoned for whatever reason, both teams will be declared joint winners.
MS: Wow! This seems really well planned man. Where can I watch this in the US?
GNT: You guys don’t have Star Sports or cricket on Disney+ Hotstar in the USA, which will telecast and stream the tournament in India no?
So it will be Willow TV showing it to you in the USA and Canada too.
The local timings are favourable for you (7:30 pm for the first game between USA and Canada) but they are a bit odd for me you know! I’ll have to be up by 6 am to watch and cover these games!
MS: That’s crazy man! I’m just happy it’s happening in the US. I might go the India Pakistan game you know? But dude I need to read and educate myself a bit more about the teams.
GNT: Don’t look at me for tickets lol. But you can certainly look at Cricket.com for all your other requirements from the tournament man. We have already done a huge pile of buildup content (that’s why I can’t watch reruns of The Office with you idiot!). Check them out.
MS: Stop sucking up again lol. But yeah, I will.
GNT: Cool! Maybe this time you’ll finally learn what’s the most fun format of the most sophisticated game known to mankind feels like!
Also you know that baseball breakdown guy Jomboy will be commentating in the World Cup? Remember I showed you his videos?
MS: This Jomboy news is so exciting. I’m so happy and really looking forward to hear him. Stop this indirect dissing of baseball man GNT!
GNT: Sorry sorry. I don’t get paid for that. Or maybe I do. lol.
