ICC World Twenty20 (T20) Schedule, Fixtures, Ratings, Team Rankings

Update: IPL T20 2010 Schedule, Team and Players

After grand tournament of Indian Premier League (IPL), the cricket world is ready to enjoy ICC T20 World Cup in England from 5th June to 21st June. Though it’s not gonna last as long as IPL, it’s international tournament of 20-20 cricket matches, where rivals meet and that makes it more fun.

Total 12 teams - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Ireland and Netherland will participate in 2009 twenty20 cup.

ICC T20 (Twenty20) World Cup Ratings Explained

The ICC (International Cricket Council) has announced top two rated/ranked teams in each group and given them a number 1 and 2 respectively. They will retain this number irrespective of whether they finish first or second in the group.

For example if Bangladesh top ranked Group A and India finished second in the same group; India will still remain as A1 and Bangladesh will remain as A2 in Super Eights stages. If Ireland knockout Bangladesh in Group A then Ireland will become A2.

Here are the four group’s scenarios:

Group A – India (A1), Bangladesh (A2) and Ireland
Group B – Pakistan (B1), England (B2) and Netherlands
Group C – Australia (C1), Sri Lanka (C2) and West Indies
Group D – New Zealand (D1), South Africa (D2) and Scotland

Super Eight Groups

Group E –A1, B2, C1 and D2
Group F – A2, B1, C2, and D1

There is a strange but fact to be noted. Zimbabwe, the team which has been playing International cricket for quite some time and although their test & ODI performance were not upto the mark - they had beaten Australia in the inaugural twenty20 world cup in south africa.. yet - they have opted out of this 2nd T20 World Cup. The reason behind that is Zimbabwe cricket doesn’t think UK Government will issue visas for their team members!

Based on the performance in the first twenty20 World Cup - India have been awarded the easiest group along side Bangladesh and Ireland in this second Twenty20 world cup to be played in England in the month of June 2009.

12 teams are broken into group of 3 in first stage out of which - 2 teams will qualify for the second round where each team plays 3 more matches before qualifying for the semi-finals. .

World Cup twenty-twenty20 fixtures have a strange pattern where each qualifying team will play two teams which qualified at number 2 in their group whereas 1 match with winner of third group.. .

similarly - the team which qualifies 2nd in a group gets to play 2 matches against group winners & 1 match versus 2nd team of a group.

A 27 match tournament whose matches will be starting mainly at 2 different timings (5pm & 1.30pm according to UK timing) and to be played at only 3 stadiums across England.

Note that the final match will be played 2 hours earlier than usual night matches and Nottingham is the ground which is also known as Trent Bridge which is one of 3 venues in England hosting this cricket tournament.

India are the defending champions.

Warm-up games

1st June = Ireland vs Netherlands, Australia vs Bangladesh, India vs New Zealand and Pakistan vs South Africa
2nd June = Bangaldesh vs Sri Lanka, Ireland vs West Indies, England vs Scotland and Australia vs New Zealand
3rd June = Sri Lanka vs South Africa, Netherland vs Scotland, England vs West Indies and India vs Pakistan

Twenty20 World Cup 2009 : Match schedule and start timings