The International Cricket Council termed this year’s T20 World Cup schedule in the US and West Indies “the most complicated ever to draft” on Wednesday. The tournament will feature a record 20 teams, up from 16 in 2022, and nine North American venues, including New York’s 34,000-seat Nassau County stadium.
Schedule for 2024 T20 World Cup ‘most challenging ever’, says ICC
The ICC unveiled the Long Island ground Wednesday, hosting the highly anticipated India-Pakistan match on June 9 among its eight World Cup fixtures. The temporary modular stadium will include drop-in pitches but no floodlights.
“We are in New York because there is a hotbed of cricket fans there and we are bringing some of the most eagerly anticipated cricket matches, including possibly the most anticipated cricket match of all, to that venue,” ICC Head of Events Chris Tetley told reporters in an online media roundtable.
I expect the place to be filled and the atmosphere World Cup-like. Yes, we consider the time of day. However, this is world-class cricket with the best players, who will perform well at a top stadium.”
The USA will play Canada in Dallas on June 1, while the West Indies will play Papua New Guinea in Guyana. Bridgetown, Barbados, hosts the final on June 29.
“For this tournament in my experience, has been the most complicated match schedule ever to draft… the number of matches and the number of teams which is the largest ever T20 World Cup,” Tetley. To accommodate sub-continent supporters, Indian websites have posted match times between 1400 and 1600 GMT, but Tetley said they have yet to finalise them.
“We haven’t released the start time of the matches yet,” they stated.
Last year, MI New York won the US’s inaugural Major League Cricket series.
“I look at it (T20 World Cup) as an amazing opportunity to harness the interest that exists within the US,” Tetley said.
This cricket game in my backyard—what is it? The first season of Major League Cricket was popular. Breakfast chat shows have mentioned World Cup cricket coming to New York, which was unthinkable not long ago.”
Populous designed Yankee Stadium in New York and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, among other renowned locations. Six of the nine locations are Caribbean. The third US base is Florida.
