Twenty20 World Championship 2007
Travel to South Africa for Cricket’s Latest International Tournament
May 31, 2007
Following the farcical end to the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies, the relentless march of the Twenty20 form of the game could gather pace in September 2007. This is when the first ever Twenty20 World Championship will take place, being played in the South African cities of Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Twenty20 World Championship 2007 – The History
Surprisingly, given England’s shocking record in limited overs cricket, Twenty20 is an English invention. It was an innovation introduced in 2003 by the England and Wales Cricket Board, designed to be an inter-county cricket competition that could be watched in under three hours.
By reducing the matches to 20 overs and 75 minutes in each innings, the game dispenses with the long period of accumulation often associated with 50 over One Day Internationals, and the inaugural Twenty20 Cup was an unqualified success. The initial winners were the Surrey Lions, who beat the Warwickshire Bears in the 2003 Twenty20 Cup final. It was the capacity crowd that mattered more than the result though – a way had been found to get children, families and non-cricket fans to come and watch county cricket matches.
Purists grumbled heavily about the new format, branding it a simple slogfest, but techniques honed in Twenty20 games have already made it into the international 50 over and Test game.
The Twenty20 format has also gone worldwide, with domestic competitions being gradually introduced across the cricket-playing nations and each major nation has also played at least one Twenty20 international.
With attendance figures large across the world, the International Cricket Council has had little option but to introduce its own Twenty20 World Championship – and the first one will be held in South Africa from September 11th 2007 to September 24th 2007.
Twenty20 World Championship 2007 – The Teams and Format
The twelve international cricket teams taking part in the Twenty20 World Championship will be split into four groups. Group A comprises South Africa, The West Indies and Bangladesh, while Australia, Zimbabwe and England make up Group B. Group C will be fought out between New Zealand Kenya and Sri Lanka, with India, Pakistan and Scotland contesting Group D.
The top two teams in each group – to be decided on run rate if points are equal – will qualify for a second group stage. Here there are two groups of four, with the top two in each going through to the semi-finals. The winners of each semi-final will contest the final.
Twenty20 World Championship 2007 – The Venues
The group games will be played at three venues – The Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town and Kingsmead in Durban. The Wanderers Stadium will host the final, with the semi-finals being played at the other two grounds.
