USA Cricket to Joint-Host ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2024
West Indies part of bid as well ahead of major international competition
Posted On: November 17, 2021 By :The United States will co-host a major international cricket event for the first time after the ICC announced that the U.S. and West Indies will co-host the Men’s Twenty20 World Cup in 2024.
This will be the fourth occasion the West Indies will be hosting a World Cup event on behalf of the ICC. Twenty nations will compete in four groups in a tournament to be played over 25 days starting in June 2024.
The 2024 event will see two-thirds of the 55 matches held in the Carribean at 13 grounds in the West Indies. Five U.S. venues are set to stage around a third of the games at the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, which will be co-hosted by the West Indies. There will be up to five venues used in the United States although locations for those matches is yet to be determined.
“For USA Cricket and Cricket West Indies to have been awarded the co-hosting of the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is a huge statement of intent from the sport on the potential for cricket in the Americas region,” said USA Cricket’s Iain Higgins. “USA Cricket is incredibly grateful to the ICC Board for showing faith in the partnership to make history in 2024. The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be delivered in a way that has the potential to break attendance and broadcast viewership records and set a new benchmark for commercial success, staging matches in broadcast prime-time to audiences around the world and inviting new public and private partnerships from corporate America for the ICC and its members to develop over the next eight years of ICC event.”
There currently is only one ICC-certified stadium in the U.S., Central Broward Regional Park Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida. In a statement, USA Cricket said of its venues, “some of which are already ICC-approved for international cricket, some of which are under construction and some of which will be repurposed specifically to host World Cup matches. All of the venues across both countries will be selected following a competitive tender process to be run over the coming months.”
The ICC’s decision to have the United States as a co-host for 2024 is part of the federation’s push to have cricket added to the schedule for the 2028 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles.
“We are overjoyed with today’s news after what has been a massive piece of work with our friends at Cricket West Indies to put together the winning bid for the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup,” said USA Cricket Board Chair Paraag Marathe. “The ICC has identified the USA as a strategic market for growth that will benefit cricket around the world. A major event in 2024 will be the critical catalyst to improve facilities, develop a professional league, grow the fanbase and inspire public and corporate support.”
The announcement comes on the same week that Higgins also announced that he would be leaving as CEO.
“The entire Board would like to thank Iain for the commitment, drive and vision that he has displayed in the role over the past couple of years,” Marathe said. “Iain has also been the driving force behind USA Cricket’s current bid to co-host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2024 together with Cricket West Indies and we are hopeful that event will be the lasting legacy of his tenure with USA Cricket. We wish Iain the best in wherever his career takes him next.”
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