Men's T20 World Cup

The ICC Men's T20 World Cup, formerly the ICC World Twenty20, is a biennial world cup for cricket in Twenty20 International (T20I) format, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was held in every odd year from 2007 to 2009, and since 2010 has been held in every even year with the exception of 2018 and 2020. In 2018, the tournament was rebranded from World Twenty20 to Men's T20 World Cup.
The 2011 edition of the tournament was brought forward to 2010 to replace the ICC Champions Trophy. In May 2016, the ICC put forward the idea of having a tournament in 2018, with South Africa being the possible host, but later dropped the idea due to multiple bilateral cricket events taking place that year. The 2020 edition of the tournament was scheduled to take place in Australia but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was postponed until 2021, with the intended host changed to India. The 2021 Men's T20 World Cup was later relocated to the United Arab Emirates and Oman due to problems relating to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, taking place five years after the previous (2016) iteration.
As of 2024, nine editions have so far been played, a total of 24 teams have competed and six national teams have won the T20 World Cup so far. Three teams, West Indies (2012, 2016), England (2010, 2022) and India (2007, 2024), have won the competition twice each. Pakistan (2009), Sri Lanka (2014), and Australia (2021) have one title each. A total of 15 countries have hosted the tournament (including 6 island nations of the West Indies). India are the current champions having won their second title in the 2024 edition. The next edition of the tournament will take place in India and Sri Lanka in 2026.
When the Benson & Hedges Cup ended in 2002, the England and Wales Cricket Board sought another one-day competition to appeal to the younger generation in response to dwindling crowds and reduced sponsorship. The Board wanted to deliver fast-paced, exciting cricket accessible to fans who were put off by the longer versions of the game. Stuart Robertson, the marketing manager of the ECB, proposed a 20-over per innings game to county chairmen in 2001, and they voted 11–7 in favour of adopting the new format. The first official Twenty20 matches were played on 13 June 2003 between the English counties in the T20 Blast's inaugural edition. The first season of Twenty20 in England was a relative success, with the Surrey defeating the Warwickshire by 9 wickets in the final to claim the title. The first Twenty20 match held at Lord's, on 15 July 2004 between Middlesex and Surrey, attracted a crowd of 27,509, the largest attendance for any county cricket game at the ground since 1983. On 17 February 2005, Australia defeated New Zealand in the first men's full international Twenty20 match, played at Eden Park in Auckland.
The first tournament was in 2007 in South Africa where India defeated Pakistan in the final. In December 2007 it was decided to hold a qualifying tournament with a 20-over format to better prepare the teams. The 2009 tournament in England was won by Pakistan who defeated Sri Lanka on the final.
The third tournament, was brought forward to 2010 from 2011 to replace the ICC Champions Trophy. This scheduling bottleneck was caused after the 5th edition of the ICC Champions Trophy, scheduled to be hosted by Pakistan in 2008, was delayed and shifted to South Africa in 2009 due to security concerns. The Champions Trophy was converted into a quadrennial tournament after that. The third World Twenty20 was held in the West Indies in May 2010, where England defeated Australia by 7 wickets in the final. The 2012 tournament in Sri Lanka was won by the West Indies, by defeating Sri Lanka in the final.
The 2012 edition was to be expanded into a 16-team format, however this was reverted to 12. The 2014 tournament in Bangladesh, was the first to feature 16 teams including all ten full members and six associate members who qualified through the 2013 Qualifier. Sri Lanka won the 2014 tournament after defeating India in the final. The 2016 tournament in India was won by West Indies, who became the first team to win two T20 World Cups after defeating England in the final.
In May 2016, the ICC proposed a World Twenty20 tournament in 2018, with South Africa being the possible host, but this was later dropped as the top member nations were busied with multiple bilateral cricket events taking place in 2018. In November 2018, as part of a goal to heighten the profile of the World Twenty20 tournaments, the ICC announced that they would be rebranded as the "T20 World Cup" beginning in 2020.
Initially, Australia was set to host both the men's and women's tournaments in 2020, however in July 2020, the ICC announced that the 2020 tournament had been postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and with Australian international travel restrictions not expected to be lifted until 2021. Later, the ICC chose to relocate the tournament to India, and award Australia the 2022 edition as compensation. Due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic in India, the tournament was played at venues in the United Arab Emirates and Oman instead, although India remained as the formal host. The 2021 tournament was won by Australia, who won their maiden T20 World Cup title after defeating New Zealand in the final. The 2022 tournament was won by England, who won their second T20 World Cup title after defeating Pakistan in the final.
In June 2021, the ICC announced that the Men's T20 World Cup would expand to 20 teams beginning in 2024, divided into four groups of five each for the group stage. The top two teams in each pool would advance to the Super 8 stage. In December 2015, Tim Anderson, the ICC's head of global development, suggested that a future tournament be hosted by the United States. He believed that hosting the event could help spur growth of the game in the country, where it is relatively obscure and faces competition by other sports such as baseball. In 2020, the United States and West Indies expressed interest in co-hosting a T20 World Cup, and the 2024 tournament was hosted by the West Indies and the United States. It was the first time the US had hosted a major ICC event. In the final, India defeated South Africa to win their second T20 World Cup title after 17 years.
In December 2024, following an agreement between Board of Control for Cricket in India and Pakistan Cricket Board, the ICC confirmed that any matches involving India or Pakistan at ICC events hosted by India or Pakistan in the 2024–2027 ICC Events cycle would be played at a neutral venue, which includes the 2026 tournament to be hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
The ICC's executive committee votes for the hosts of the tournament after examining bids from the nations which have expressed an interest in holding the event. After South Africa in 2007, the tournament was hosted by England, the West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 respectively. After a gap of four years, Australia was set to host the 2020 edition, but it was postponed to 2021, relocated to India and played in UAE and Oman due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 tournament was hosted by Australia. In November 2021 as part of the 2024–2031 men's hosts cycle, the ICC confirmed the hosts for the next four Men's T20 World Cup tournaments from 2024 to 2030. The West Indies and United States would co-host the 2024 edition, India and Sri Lanka to co-host the 2026 edition, Australia and New Zealand to host the 2028 edition and the 2030 edition is to be co-hosted by England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
All ICC full members qualify automatically for the tournament, with the remaining places filled by other ICC members through a qualification process. Qualification for the inaugural tournament came from the results of the first cycle of the World Cricket League, a 50-over league for ICC associate and affiliate members. The two finalists of the 2007 WCL Division One tournament, Kenya and Scotland, qualified for the World Twenty20 later in the year. A separate qualification tournament was implemented for the second tournament and was retained until 2022. The number of teams qualifying through the World Twenty20 Qualifier varied, two in 2009, 2010 and 2012, six in 2014, 2016 and 2021, and 4 in 2022 (A, B). Until 2016, teams advanced to the T20 World Cup Qualifier through the WCL. After the WCL was superseded by the new CWC qualification process, a new set of regional qualifiers were introduced in 2019. Until the 2022 edition, teams from regional qualifiers advanced to the T20WC Qualifier through which they qualified for the T20 World Cup. Following the tournament's expansion to include 20 teams, winners of regional qualifiers would directly advance to the T20 World Cup based on the regional quota.
The T20 World Cup is played in three stages. The preliminary stage or group stage is played by 2 (2014–2022) or 4 (2007–2012; 2024–present) groups in a round-robin format. The second round known as Super 8 (2007–2012; 2024–present), Super 10 (2014–2016) and Super 12 (2021–2022) is also played by 2 groups in a round-robin format. In both the preliminary round and the Super round, teams are ranked based on: 1) Points; 2) Wins; 3) Net run rate; 4) Results of games between tied teams; 5) Pre-seedings in the preliminary stage and T20I rankings in the Super stage. The third round is played as a knockout stage of four teams. In case of a tie (that is, both teams scoring the same number of runs at the end of their respective innings), a Super Over would decide the winner. In the case of a tie occurring again in the Super Over, subsequent super overs would be played until there is a winner. Prior to 2019, the match would be won by the team that had scored the most boundaries in their innings. During the 2007 tournament, a bowl-out was used to decide the loser of tied matches.
The ICC Men's T20 World Cup Trophy is presented to the winners of the final. It is made of silver and rhodium and weighs approximately 12 kg (26 lb) and stands 57.15 cm (22.50 in) tall, with a width of 16.5 cm (6.5 in) at the top and 13.97 cm (5.50 in) at the base. It was designed in 2007 by Minale Bryce Design Strategy, based in Queensland, Australia. The trophy was initially manufactured by Amit Pabuwal in India, and then in 2012, Links of London became the manufacturer of the trophy. In 2021, Thomas Lyte became the official manufacturer of the trophy.
As of the 2024 tournament, twenty-four nations have played in the T20 World Cup. Nine teams have competed in every tournament, six of which have won the title. West Indies, England and India have won the title twice each, while Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia have won the title once each. Sri Lanka, England, Pakistan and India have each made three final appearances, while Pakistan have also made six semi-final appearances. The best result by a non-Test playing nation is the Super 8 appearance by the United States in 2024, while the worst result by a Test playing nation is the Super 12 appearance by Zimbabwe in 2022.
No teams have yet won the tournament as hosts; the best performance by a host nation is runners-up by Sri Lanka in 2012. No title winners have yet defended their title in the following edition; the best performance by a defending champion is the semi-final appearances by Pakistan, West Indies and England in 2010, 2014 and 2024 respectively. Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados is the only venue to have hosted more than one final (2010 and 2024). All Test playing nations made their debuts in the inaugural edition with the exception of Ireland and Afghanistan who made their debuts in the 2009 and 2010 editions respectively. Kenya and Scotland were the only non-Test playing nations to be featured in the inaugural edition.
The table below provides a summary of the performances of teams over past T20 World Cups, as of the end of the 2024 tournament. Teams are ordered by best result then by appearances, and then alphabetically. Test playing nations / ICC full members are listed in boldface.
As of the 2024 tournament, former Indian captain Rohit Sharma and Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh are the only players to have appeared in all nine editions of the T20 World Cup. Rohit Sharma also holds the record for most appearances in a T20 World Cup match (47), while MS Dhoni holds the record for most T20 World Cup matches as a captain (33). Virat Kohli has won the most player of the match awards in T20 World Cups (8). Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados has hosted most T20 World Cup matches (20). Australian umpire Rod Tucker has umpired the most T20 World Cup matches (46), while Simon Taufel has umpired the most T20 World Cup finals. England and South Africa scored the highest match aggregate of 459/12 in 2016. England also holds the record for the highest score chased in T20 World Cups for the same match. India has the highest victory percentage in T20 World Cups (67.30%).
Former Indian captain Virat Kohli holds the records for most runs (1,292), most runs in a tournament (319 in 2014) and most 50+ scores (15), while Chris Gayle of West Indies holds the record for most centuries (2). Shakib Al Hasan also holds the record for most wickets (50), while Fazalhaq Farooqi of Afghanistan and Arshdeep Singh of India shares the record for most wickets in a tournament (17 in 2024). Pat Cummins is the only player to have taken more than one hat-trick and has taken 2 hat-tricks both in 2024. Former Indian captain MS Dhoni holds the record for most dismissals by a wicket-keeper (32) and David Warner of Australia hold the record for most catches by a fielder (25). Former West Indies captain Daren Sammy holds the record for most T20 World Cup titles as a captain, while Marlon Samuels holds the record for most player of the final awards (both in 2012 and 2016).