New Delhi: The ICC World T20 Championships — biggest cricket event of the year -- has begun. The 27-day event, starting from March 8 with qualifiers, will end on April 3 when the Final will be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. In all, the World T20 will be played across 7 venues in India with 16 teams taking part in the tournament. Here is everything you need to know about the World T20.
FORMAT
The 2016 ICC World Twenty20, will have a group stage to be competed by the qualified Associate teams — Ireland, Netherlands, Oman, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Scotland — along with the two lowest-ranked Full Member sides — Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. One team from each group will qualify for the main group and join the top eight Full Members on the ICC T20I Team Rankings in the second round — Super 10.
QUALIFIERS
Group A: Bangladesh, Netherlands, Ireland and Oman.
Group B: Zimbabwe, Scotland, Hong Kong and Afghanistan.
SUPER 10
Group 1: Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies, England and Afghanistan
Group 2: India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh
VENUES
Dharamsala, Mohali, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Nagpur, Bengaluru
SQUADS
AFGHANISTAN – Asghar Stanikzai (capt.); Dawlat Zadran; Gulbadin Naib; Hamid Hassan; Hamza Hotak; Karim Sadiq; Mohammad Nabi; Mohammad Shahzad; Najibullah Zadran; Noor Ali Zadran; Rashid Khan; Samiullah Shenwari; Shafiqullah Shafaq; Shahpoor Zadran and Usman Ghani.
Coach – Inzamam-ul-Haq
AUSTRALIA – Steve Smith (capt.); Ashton Agar; Nathan Coulter-Nile; James Faulkner; Aaron Finch; John Hastings; Josh Hazlewood; Usman Khawaja; Mitchell Marsh; Glenn Maxwell; Peter Nevill; Andrew Tye; David Warner; Shane Watson and Adam Zampa.
Coach – Darren Lehmann
BANGLADESH – Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (capt.); Abu Hider; Al-Amin Hossain, Arafat Sunny, Mahmudullah, Mohammad Mithun; Mushfiqur Rahim; Mustafizur Rahman; Nasir Hossain, Nurul Hasan; Sabbir Rahman; Shakib Al Hasan; Soumya Sarkar; Tamim Iqbal and Taskin Ahmed.
Coach – Chandika Hathurushinghe
ENGLAND – Eoin Morgan (capt.); Moeen Ali; Sam Billings; Jos Buttler; Liam Dawson; Steven Finn; Alex Hales; Chris Jordan; Adil Rashid; Joe Root; Jason Roy; Ben Stokes; Reece Topley; James Vince and David Willey.
Coach – Trevor Bayliss
HONG KONG – Tanwir Afzal (capt.); Nadeem Ahmed; Haseeb Amjad; Jamie Atkinson; Waqas Barkat; Ryan Campbell; Chris Carter; Mark Chapman; Babar Hayat; Aizaz Khan; Nizakat Khan; Waqas Khan; Adil Mehmood; Anshuman Rath and Kinchit Shah.
Coach – Simon Cook
INDIA – Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt.); Ravichandran Ashwin; Jasprit Bumrah; Shikhar Dhawan; Ravindra Jadeja; Virat Kohli; Pawan Negi; Ashish Nehra; Hardik Pandya; Ajinkya Rahane; Suresh Raina; Mohammed Shami; Rohit Sharma; Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh.
Team Director – Ravi Shastri
IRELAND – William Porterfield (capt.); Andrew Balbirnie; George Dockrell; Andrew McBrine; Tim Murtagh; Kevin O’Brien; Niall O’Brien; Andrew Poynter; Stuart Poynter; Boyd Rankin; Max Sorensen; Paul Stirling; Stuart Thompson; Gary Wilson and Craig Young.
Coach – John Bracewell
NETHERLANDS – Peter Borren (capt.); Wesley Barresi; Logan van Beek; Mudassar Bukhari; Ben Cooper; Timm van der Gugten; Vivian Kingma; Ahsan Malik; Paul van Meekeren; Roelof van der Merwe; Stephan Myburgh; Max O’Dowd; Michael Rippon; Pieter Seelaar and Sikander Zulfiqar.
Coach – Anton Roux
NEW ZEALAND – Kane Williamson (capt.), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Adam Milne, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Colin Munro, Henry Nicholls, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee and Ross Taylor.
Coach – Mike Hesson
OMAN – Sultan Ahmed (capt.); Aamir Kaleem; Aaqib Sulehri; Adnan Ilyas; Ajay Lalcheta; Amir Ali; Bilal Khan; Jatinder Singh; Mehran Khan; Munis Ansari; Rajeshkumar Ranpura; Sufyan Mehmood;; Vaibhav Wategaonkar; Zeeshan Maqsood and Zeeshan Siddiqui.
Coach – Duleep Mendis
PAKISTAN – Shahid Afridi (c), Ahmed Shehzad, Anwar Ali, Imad Wasim, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Amir, Mohammed Hafeez, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Sami, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Shoaib Malik, Sharjeel Khan, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz.
Coach – Waqar Younis
SCOTLAND – Preston Mommsen (capt.); Richie Berrington; Kyle Coetzer; Matt Cross; Josh Davey; Ali Evans; Con de Lange; Michael Leask; Matt Machan; Calum MacLeod; Gavin Main; George Munsey; Safyaan Sharif; Rob Taylor and Mark Watt.
Coach – Grant Bradburn
SOUTH AFRICA – Faf du Plessis (capt.); Kyle Abbott; Hashim Amla; Farhaan Behardien; Quniton de Kock; AB de Villiers; JP Duminy; David Miller; Chris Morris; Aaron Phangiso; Kagiso Rabada; Rilee Rossouw; Dale Steyn; Imran Tahir and David Wiese.
Coach – Russell Domingo
SRI LANKA – Lasith Malinga (capt.); Dushmantha Chameera; Dinesh Chandimal; Niroshan Dickwella; Tillakaratne Dilshan; Rangana Herath; Shehan Jayasuriya; Chamara Kapugedera; Nuwan Kulasekara; Angelo Mathews; Thisara Perera; Sachithra Senanayake; Dasun Shanaka; Milinda Siriwardana and Jeffrey Vandersay.
Coach – Graham Ford
WEST INDIES – Darren Sammy (capt.); Samuel Badree; Sulieman Benn; Carlos Brathwaite; Dwayne Bravo; Johnson Charles; Andre Fletcher; Chris Gayle; Jason Holder; Ashley Nurse; Denesh Ramdin; Andre Russell; Marlon Samuels; Evin Lewis, and Jerome Taylor.
Coach – Phil Simmons
ZIMBABWE – Hamilton Masakadza (capt.); Tendai Chatara; Elton Chigumbura; Tendai Chisoro; Graeme Cremer; Luke Jongwe; Neville Madziva; Wellington Masakadza; PJ Moor; Richmond Mutumbami; Tinashe Panyangara; Sikandar Raza; Vusimuzi Sibanda; Malcolm Waller and Sean Williams.
Coach – Dav Whatmore
MATCH SCHEDULE — DATE, VENUE, TIMINGS
Group Stage
8th March 2016, Tuesday
Zimbabwe vs Hong Kong (3:00 PM)
Scotland vs Afghanistan (7:30 PM)
Venue: Nagpur
9th March 2016, Wednesday
Bangladesh vs Netherlands (3:00 PM)
Ireland vs Oman (7:30 PM)
Venue: Dharamsala
10th March 2016, Thursday
Scotland vs Zimbabwe (3:00 PM)
Hong Kong vs Afghanistan (7:30 PM)
Venue: Nagpur
11th March 2016, Friday
Netherlands vs Oman (3:00 PM)
Bangladesh vs Ireland (7:30 PM)
Venue: Dharamsala
12th March 2016, Saturday
Zimbabwe vs Afghanistan (3:00 PM)
Scotland vs Hong Kong (7:30 PM)
Venue: Nagpur
13th March 2016, Sunday
Ireland vs Netherlands (3:00 PM)
Bangladesh VS Oman (7:30 PM)
Venue: Dharamsala
Super 10
15th March 2016, Tuesday
New Zealand vs India (7:30 PM)
Venue: Nagpur
16th March 2016, Wednesday
West Indies vs England (3:00 PM)
Venue: Mumbai
Pakistan vs Bangladesh (7:30 PM)
Venue: Kolkata
17th March 2016, Thursday
Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan (19:30 PM)
Venue: Kolkata
18th March 2016, Friday
Australia vs New Zealand (3:00 PM)
Venue: Dharamsala
South Africa vs England (7:30 PM)
Venue: Mumbai
19th March 2016, Saturday
India vs Pakistan (7:30 PM)
Venue: Kolkata
20th March 2016, Sunday
South Africa vs Afghanistan (3:00 PM)
Venue: Mumbai
Sri Lanka vs West Indies (7:30 PM)
Venue: Bengaluru
21st March 2016, Monday
Australia VS Bangladesh (7:30 PM)
Venue: Bengaluru
22nd March 2016, Tuesday
New Zealand vs Pakistan (7:30 PM)
Venue: Mohali
23rd March 2016, Wednesday
England vs Afghanistan (3:00 PM)
Venue: New Delhi
India vs Bangladesh (7:30 PM)
Venue: Bengaluru
25th March 2016, Friday
Pakistan vs Australia (3:00 PM)
Venue: Mohali
South Africa vs West Indies (7:30 PM)
Venue: Nagpur
26th March 2016, Saturday
Bangladesh vs New Zealand (3:00 PM)
Venue: Kolkata
England vs Sri Lanka (7:30 PM)
Venue: New Delhi
27th March 2016, Sunday
India vs Australia (3:00 PM)
Venue: Mohali
Afghanistan vs West Indies (7:30 PM)
Venue: Nagpur
28th March 2016, Monday
South Africa vs Sri Lanka (7:30 PM)
Venue: New Delhi
30th March 2016, Wednesday
Semi Final 1 (7:30 PM)
Venue: New Delhi
31st March 2016, Thursday
Semi Final 2 (7:30 PM)
Venue: Mumbai
3rd April 2016, Sunday
Final
7:30 PM
Venue: Kolkata