The 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is scheduled to be the seventh ICC Men’s T20 World Cup tournament, scheduled to be played in October and November 2021 in India. Originally, the tournament was to be held in Australia from 18 October to 15 November 2020. However, in July 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that the tournament had been postponed until 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2020, the ICC also confirmed that India would host the 2021 tournament.
Background
In April 2020, the ICC confirmed that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was still planned to go ahead as scheduled. However, the following month a senior ICC official said that it would be “too big a risk” to host the tournament in 2020, The ICC also stated that reports of postponing the tournament were inaccurate, with multiple contingency plans being looked at. A decision on the tournament was originally deferred until the ICC’s meeting on 10 June 2020, with a further announcement scheduled to be made in July 2020. In June 2020, Earl Eddings, the chairman of Cricket Australia, said that it was “unlikely” and “unrealistic” that the tournament would take place in Australia as scheduled. Eddings also suggested that Australia could host the event in October 2021, and India stage the tournament a year later in 2022. The ICC also considered moving the tournament to be played around the next Women’s ODI World Cup, which was originally scheduled to take place in New Zealand for February 2021.
A month before the official postponement, Australian federal tourism minister Simon Birmingham announced that the Australian government expected that the country’s borders would be closed to international travel until 2021. The ICC also confirmed that either Australia or India, the hosts for the tournaments originally scheduled to take place in 2020 and 2021 respectively, would host this tournament. In August 2020, the ICC confirmed that India are expected to host the 2021 tournament, with Australia expected to the 2022 tournament. In the same month, the ICC confirmed that Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates were being considered as back-up venues for the tournament. In April 2021, the ICC’s CEO Geoff Allardice confirmed that back-up plans were still in place if India were unable to host the tournament due to the pandemic.
Teams and qualification
As of 31 December 2018, the top nine ranked ICC Full Members, alongside hosts India, qualified directly for the 2021 tournament. Of those ten teams, the top eight ranked sides qualified for the Super 12s stage of the tournament. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh did not qualify for the Super 12s, instead being placed in the group stage of the competition. They were joined by the six teams who had qualified for the tournament via the 2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier. Of the teams in the ICC T20I Championship, the United Arab Emirates and Nepal could only qualify through regional competitions. The top four teams from the group stage will then advance to the Super 12s.
Papua New Guinea became the first team to qualify directly for the 2021 Men’s ICC T20 World Cup, after they won Group A of the qualifier tournament, finishing above the Netherlands on net run rate. It was the first time that Papua New Guinea had qualified for a World Cup in any format. Ireland became the second team to qualify directly to the Men’s T20 World Cup, after they won Group B of the qualifier tournament, also on net run rate.
In the first qualifier match in the playoffs, the Netherlands qualified for the Men’s T20 World Cup when they beat the United Arab Emirates by eight wickets, after the UAE only scored 80 runs in their innings. The second qualifier match saw Namibia advance to their first T20 World Cup after beating Oman by 54 runs. Scotland beat tournament hosts the United Arab Emirates in the third qualifier by 90 runs to secure their place in the T20 World Cup. The final qualifier match saw Oman become the last team to qualify for the Men’s T20 World Cup, after they narrowly beat Hong Kong by 12 runs.
| Means of Qualification | Date | Venue | Berths | Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host Nation | 7 August 2020 | 1 |  India |
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| ICC T20I Championship (Top 9 teams in rankings who played in the last WT20, excluding the hosts) |
31 December 2018 | Various | 9 |  Pakistan Australia England South Africa New Zealand West Indies Afghanistan Sri Lanka Bangladesh |
| 2019 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier | 18 October–3 November 2019 |  United Arab Emirates |
6 |  Netherlands Papua New Guinea Ireland Namibia Scotland Oman |
| Total | 16 | |||
Venues
On 17 April 2021, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) proposed the name of the cities which are scheduled to be hosting the matches. Bangalore, Chennai, Dharamshala, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, and New Delhi were the venues along with Ahmedabad, hosting the final of the event. On 18 April 2021, it was announced that Pakistan would play two of their group matches in Delhi, while Mumbai and Kolkata would host the semi-finals.
Venues for the 2021 ICC World Twenty20 in India.
| Bangalore | Chennai | Dharamshala |
|---|---|---|
| M. Chinnaswamy Stadium | M. A. Chidambaram Stadium | HPCA Stadium |
| Capacity: 40,000 | Capacity: 50,000 | Capacity: 26,950 |
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| Matches: | Matches: | Matches: |
| Hyderabad | Ahmedabad | Kolkata |
| RGIC Stadium | Narendra Modi Stadium | Eden Gardens |
| Capacity: 55,000 | Capacity: 132,000 | Capacity: 66,349 |
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| Matches: | Matches: (final) | Matches: (SF) |
| Lucknow | Mumbai | New Delhi |
| Ekana Cricket Stadium | Wankhede Stadium | Arun Jaitley Stadium |
| Capacity: 50,000 | Capacity: 33,108 | Capacity: 41,820 |
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| Matches: | Matches: (SF) | Matches: |