Image source, Getty Images
- author, Stefan Schimmelt
- Role, Chief Cricket Writer
Cricket never misses the World Cup.
Just 195 days after the end of the Men’s Over-50 World Cup, the T20 edition gets underway on Sunday (01:30 GMT). There’s a Women’s T20 World Cup later this year and a 50-over event in 2025, not to mention multiple Champions Cups, Intertoto Cups and world championships. Some of it may be fictional, but you get the idea.
Whether familiarity breeds contempt is a matter of opinion, but change can be just as comforting, and this tournament is certainly different from the one India witnessed last fall.
There is a freshness to the 2024 T20 World Cup, both from the hosts and the participating teams. This is the American dream of cricket, where the sport finally takes on the beauty of global competition coming from teams we never see, rather than ones we always see.
It is a stretch to think that this event will have the same impact on sports consciousness in the United States as the 1994 FIFA World Cup; in fact, it is a tournament held in the Caribbean as well as part of it being held in the United States.
However, it is also part of a very tangible and undeniable growth of the game in the USA. Major League Cricket is already coaxing players away from the English summer and has just been granted official List A status. Cricket will end a 128-year exile from the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
The grounds in Texas and Florida are actual cricket grounds, and their glamor comes from a pop-up stadium in New York, complete with a mini-field planted in Adelaide.
Eisenhower Park’s 34,000 seats would have been sold out several times for India’s match against Pakistan, and will no doubt be completely full for India’s other group stage matches against Ireland and the United States. However, it is worth noting that the place is not located in Manhattan, but rather 30 miles east of downtown. How many fans would want to make that trip during rush hour traffic for the Ireland vs. Canada game with a 10:30 a.m. start?
It is the United States, Canada, Uganda and Papua New Guinea that bring excitement, color and real stories to the tournament. Some might claim – and perhaps prove correct – that the presence of such teams would lead to some non-matches, but cricket now mirrors football and rugby in inviting the entire planet to the World Cup. Twenty teams is the largest cricket World Cup of any kind.
One of the many problems with the World Cup 50 years on is that it is simply a rerun of matches we see over and over again. Even in T20 cricket, you might feel like you’ve watched England play the West Indies or Pakistan many times in recent years. But 43-year-old Ugandan pacer Frank Nsubuga bowling to Kane Williamson? Yes please. Bring another moment for Dwayne Leverock.
The franchise’s seemingly endless series of tournaments is a very credible stick with which to beat the game’s shortest format, although it’s undeniable that T20 is spreading the sport all over the planet. Oman, Nepal, Namibia and Scotland may never play a Test, but here they have a chance to compete on the grandest stage.
Teams outside the elite will fancy their chances of landing some hits on the big boys. Ireland, cricketing giants compared to some of the rival nations, beat England, who eventually won the title two years ago in Australia. The Netherlands have caused chaos in the 50-over tournament in India, and the USA has just won a series against Bangladesh. At the top of the food chain, Afghanistan will believe it can reach the quarter-finals.
There is also a purity to the T20 World Cup that sets it apart from domestic competitions, which are often the same players wearing different colored jerseys. There will be no impactful substitutions, no revolving door of foreign players moving in and out of other leagues, just the best players trying to win a World Cup for their country. A stopwatch between overs should keep the action going as well.
Cricket is cricket, and there are some drawbacks and idiosyncrasies.
As has become the norm, the draw has been arranged so that arch rivals England and Australia and, most lucratively, India and Pakistan, will meet in the first round. No other major team sport will take this approach.
The schedule is chaotic, with matches starting at all times and the only pattern to start matches is the desire to please the Indian television audience. If India qualifies, they already know which semi-final they will play in, with the final taking place in Barbados on June 29 at 10:30 am local time.
Defending champions England are in the weaker half of the draw, under pressure after a poor defense of their 50-year-old world title. Reaching the semi-finals appears to be the minimum requirement to calm speculation over the futures of captain Jos Buttler and coach Matthew Mott.
The top order looks exciting and the return of Jofra Archer is a huge boost to the effectiveness of the bowling attack. There is a subplot of Jonny Bairstow and Phil Salt chasing the wicket-keeping place in the Test side and the prospect of one final world event for some members of the golden generation that made England two-time world champions.
With only two matches to play in the series against Pakistan and little T20 cricket since the last World Cup, England may be ill-prepared, although the Indian Premier League has disrupted others’ preparations as well.
Australia, looking to become world champions in all three formats, only had nine players available in preparation for the clash with Namibia. India arrived with quirks and routine to what could be the final World Cup for some of their big stars. These two powerhouse teams are set to join New Zealand in the Super 8s tournament, meaning at least one of the trio will fail to reach the quarter-finals.
If the draw goes as planned, England will have to finish in the top two in a group that also includes South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan. They are more than capable of doing that, even if the Windies are extremely dangerous at home and have a point to prove after failing to qualify for the 50-over World Cup.
The T20 World Cup is historically unpredictable and the best team does not always lift the trophy. The compact grounds in the Caribbean are ideal for T20 cricket, and England’s managing director, Rob Key, said the World Cup would be a “slow battle” of six overs.
England beat the Windies 267-3 in Trinidad in December, and similar totals can be expected at some stage. Bowlers may want to check their career prospects, and spectators should tighten their insurance policies.
In the UK, the T20 World Cup will compete for attention against the General Election, the European Championship and Wimbledon, but it should be a lot of fun.
More importantly, it finally puts the world in the Cricket World Cup.
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