MIAMI (AFP) – The opening game of cricket's Twenty20 World Cup final will be held in Dallas with the final at the Kensington Oval in Barbados, organisers announced on Friday.
The expanded 20-team tournament is being jointly held by the United States and the West Indies and will get under way on June 1 at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium in Dallas. Texas, when the USA take on Canada, both teams making their first appareances at a T20 World Cup.
A total of 16 games will be held in the United States -- the first time that a major international cricket tournament is held in the country.
A new venue 30 miles east of downtown Manhattan will host the big clash between India and Pakistan on Sunday, June 9 -- one of eight games to be held at the 34,000 stadium being built in Nassau County.
Lauderhill in South Florida, the most established cricket venue in the USA, will host games featuring India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
While cricket is a niche sport in the United States it does enjoy significant support from the South Asian and Caribbean communities in the country.
"The USA is already one of cricket’s biggest audiences for ICC events and bringing the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to New York City, Dallas and Florida is a massive opportunity to exponentially grow the sport," said Peter Hutton, chair of T20 World Cup Incorporated, the entity established in the USA to deliver the event.
"We’ve got three fantastic venues to host... a unique cricket spectacle featuring the best players in the world," he added.
International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Geoff Allardice said the games in the USA represented a "new frontier" in the expension of the sport.
"It allows us to make a statement in the world’s biggest sports market," he said.
“It will also be great to have an ICC event back in the West Indies, which has such a rich history of the game. It has hosted World Cups with great success in the past and this tournament will certainly provide a boost to the game there, especially with the final being played in Barbados," he added.
The West Indies hosted the 2010 T20 World Cup, three years after they held the 50-over version.
Defending champions England will begin their title defence on June 4 in Barbados against Scotland and 2022 finalists, Pakistan, will get underway when they play the USA in Dallas.
England will go up against traditional rivals Australia in Barbados on June 8.
The 20 teams have been divided into four groups of five, with the top two teams progressing to the 'Super Eights'.
The Super Eight games will all be held in the Caribbean -- in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
The two top teams from each group in the Super Eight will progress to the semi-finals, which will be held in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago on Jun 26/27. The final will be held in Barbados on June 29.
Group stage:
Group A: India, Pakistan, Ireland, Canada, USA
Group B: England, Australia, Namibia, Scotland, Oman
Group C: New Zealand, West Indies, Afghanistan, Uganda, Papua New Guinea
Group D: South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Netherlands, Nepal