By: Pramod Thomas
RIVALS India and Pakistan will play their Twenty20 World Cup group game in New York on June 9 while co-hosts US will take on Canada in the opening match, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said.
The ninth edition of the T20 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the US and the West Indies, runs from June 1-29, starting with the US playing Canada in Dallas.
The India v Pakistan game will be played in a 34,000-seat modular stadium which will host eight matches.
A record 20 teams were split into four groups with 55 games to be played in the month-long tournament, with the top two from each group qualifying for the Super Eight round.
“The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 marks an exciting expansion of our sport with more teams than ever before set to compete in this event,” ICC chief executive Geoff Allardice said in a statement.
“It’s going to be an incredible spectacle bringing together 20 international teams from Africa, the Americas, Asia, East-Asia Pacific and Europe.”
Defending champions England are in the same group as Australia, who won the 2021 tournament and also won the one-day international World Cup last year.
T20 World Cup groups
Group A: India, Pakistan, Ireland, Canada and US
Group B: England, Australia, Namibia, Scotland and Oman
Group C: New Zealand, West Indies, Afghanistan, Uganda and Papua New Guinea
Group D: South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Netherlands and Nepal
(Reuters)