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ZIMBABWE and hosts Bangladesh will have to fight for their places in the first round of next year’s World Twenty20 Championships against the top teams that qualify from the Associate Members, according to a new format unveiled by the International Cricket Council yesterday.
The format for the men’s event in next year’s tournament has been changed following an increase in teams from 12 to 16.
The top eight sides at the conclusion of the last tournament hosted by Sri Lanka last year will play directly in the Super 10 stage, while Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, who finished outside the top eight, will participate in the first round for the remaining two slots.
The first round, which will be held a week before the Super 10 stage from March 16-21 2014, will include eight sides that will be divided into two groups of four teams each, with the table-toppers progressing to the Super 10 stage.
Group A will feature host Bangladesh alongside three teams that will qualify from the qualifiers to be staged from November 15 to 30 in UAE.
Group B will include Zimbabwe, which will be joined by another three teams from the upcoming qualifiers. As such, the two groups will be finalised on November 30.
The ICC also announced the match schedules and ticket sale plans for the ICC World Twenty20 Bangladesh 2014, which will be staged from March 16 to April 6.
According to the tournament schedule, the Super 10 stage will start with an evening match between former champions India and Pakistan in Dhaka on Friday March 21.
The West Indies’ men will defend the title they won last year in Colombo while Australia’s women will aim to complete a hat-trick of titles after having won the previous two finals in Barbados and Colombo.
As many as 60 tournament matches (35 men’s and 25 women’s) will be played across Chittagong, Dhaka and Sylhet in the 22-day tournament.
As in the past, the women’s semifinals and final will be held on the same day as the men’s semifinals and final, and at the same venue.
SCHEDULE
Group 1: Sri Lanka, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Qualifier 1.
Group 2: West Indies, India, Pakistan, Australia, Qualifier 2.
Meanwhile, our correspondent Jeffrey Murimbechi reports that Mountaineers captain Tinotenda Mawoyo reaffirmed his commitment to the Mutare-based franchise in the 2013/14 Zimbabwe cricket domestic season after enjoying a successful stint as the team’s captain in which he retained the Twenty20 championship.
“I am staying with the Mountaineers because I had my first season as captain last year and we were quite successful, I grew up in Mutare and it’s where I am from and I want to stay there and give back.”
“When we go into the season we want to win as much as we can, we’ve won the T20 two years in a row n that’s something that I would like to have in the cupboard again.
“We came second in the last season of the Logan Cup and it was really down to the first game where lost to the Tuskers,” said Mawoyo.
He added that the franchise is unlikely to make changes to their squad as they will recall the major consortium of their players. The team is not yet finalised as is the situation with the remaining franchises who are waiting on the cricket board to finalise fixtures.
“We are likely to keep the same guys from last season but we will try to get a few new players, at the moment we are working on a pre-season fitness program from Gary Brent and the rest of the guys are having private training sessions.”
Mawoyo,27, is a conversant cricketer whose experience is an asset in Mountaineers’ bid to also attain the prestigious Logan Cup which is safely docked in the Matabeleland Tuskers cabinet. He has a record of four first class centuries and 23 half centuries with a personal best of an unbeaten 163 runs.
Online Reporter