T20 World Cup 2024: India aim to end ICC title jinx, Windies eye redemption as cricket takes a leap of faith into US market

The cricketing calendar is more cramped than ever with ICC events becoming a fairly common occurrence in the modern era.

Gone are the days when cricket fans had just one major white-ball event happening every four years, which used to be the case till the late 1990s. The introduction of the biennial ‘ICC KnockOut’ — later rebranded as the ‘ICC Champions Trophy’ — in 1998 marked the beginning of a shift in international cricket, with the calendar getting increasingly crowded with the introduction of the T20 format.

Limited-overs World Cups have become something of an annual occurrence over the last three years with the T20 World Cups having taken place in 2021 and 2022 and the ODI World Cup taking place in India last year. The ICC’s even got something similar in place in Test cricket as well with the World Test Championship finals — the culmination of a two-year cycle — taking place in 2021 and 2023.

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In less than 24 hours’ time, we’ll have a third T20 World Cup in as many years, this one taking place in the United States and the Caribbean after the 2021 and 2022 editions took place in UAE/Oman and Australia respectively.

The ninth edition of ICC’s flagship T20 event, however, isn’t like anything that we’ve seen in recent years. Not only does the 2024 T20 World Cup stand out from other global and continental events, but it also has the potential to be a watershed moment in the sport, much like the 2007 T20 World Cup.

The tournament will also be an important one for Indian cricket fans given it could be the last time they see two stalwarts play a World Cup together.

India hope to end ICC title jinx

Captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were believed to have made their last T20 appearance for the Indian team in the 2022 T20 World Cup, in which the Men in Blue were knocked out in the semi-finals following a humiliating 10-wicket thrashing at the hands of eventual winners England.

Both Rohit and Kohli, however, lit up last year’s ODI World Cup on home soil and played a key role in India’s clinical run to the final, where they would get their hearts broken by Australia in Ahmedabad.

It wasn’t just the manner in which Rohit and Kohli performed in that tournament; the way Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid were able to maintain a positive atmosphere in the dressing room that translated to dominant performances on the field was also a key takeaway from that tournament.

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The BCCI perhaps wanted that combination in the T20 World Cup as well, which might have been the reason behind Rohit and Kohli’s return to the T20I format in January and coach Dravid getting an extension till June when his contract was originally supposed to expire at the end of the ODI World Cup.

Not only will Team India be hoping to end its ICC trophy jinx that has spanned 11 years now, their billion-plus fans will also be hoping to see Rohit and Kohli — two of the biggest Indian cricketers of their generation — lift a World Cup together.

Co-hosts West Indies eye redemption

There are plenty of talking points concerning other teams heading into the 2024 T20 World Cup. Defending champions England certainly have what it takes to become the first team to win consecutive editions of the tournament, and are expected to make the semi-finals at the very least.

Australia, meanwhile, have been bossing every ICC event since early 2023 across men’s, women’s and youth cricket, and there’s enough reason to believe they can keep their streak going in the Caribbean and add a second world title to a crowded trophy cabinet.

And it’s not just India who will be hoping to end a curse in the upcoming tournament. South Africa had narrowly missed out on the semi-finals in the last two editions of the T20 World Cup and suffered yet another semi-final heartbreak in last year’s ODI World Cup despite a clinical campaign. The Aiden Markram-led Proteas are stacked with match-winners across all departments and will be hopeful of breaching the World Cup semi-final barrier for once.

The biggest talking point in this year’s T20 World Cup, however, could be co-hosts West Indies and their chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of their fans sinking to new lows over the last couple of years. The ‘Men in Maroon’, who had won the tournament in 2012 and 2016 under Daren Sammy’s leadership, had failed to advance to the Super 12s in 2022, shockingly finishing at the bottom of their group comprising Zimbabwe, Ireland and Scotland.

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West Indian cricket, however, would hit a new low after they failed to qualify for the ODI World Cup last year, with the 2023 edition being the first since the tournament’s inception in 1975 to not feature the two-time champions.

The Rovman Powell-led West Indians, however, have plenty of reason to believe they can turn things around in June, with a number of their players including wicketkeeper-batter Nicholas Pooran exhibiting red-hot form in the recently-concluded IPL and the Windies also sweeping South Africa 3-0 right before the event.

Cricket finally makes it to America

The upcoming tournament will be the first ICC event taking place in the Caribbean since the 2010 World T20, in which England defeated Australia in the final to win their maiden global tournament.

More importantly, it also marks the ICC’s biggest push towards expanding the sport into the American market, with the USA co-hosting the tournament alongside the West Indies. Despite the USA having been part of the first-ever international cricket match — against neighbours Canada in a three-day game in 1844 — the ‘Gentleman’s Game’ never really picked up in the United States, a country where even football has struggled to compete against the ‘Big Three’ — American football, basketball and baseball.

Cricket’s expansion to the US had been slow, but steady, with the first match involving Full Members taking place in the form of a T20I between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Lauderhill in 2012.

From the Empire State Building to the Statue of Liberty, the ICC Men’s #T20WorldCup Trophy Tour has been pretty epic so far! 🏆 🗽 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Wq6rlOrkHK

— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) March 25, 2024

That was followed by the Cricket All-Stars Series in 2015 which had teams led by Sachin Tendulkar and the late Shane Warne featuring some of the biggest stars from the 1990s and the 2000s, with matches taking place at baseball venues in New York, Houston and Los Angeles.

The Indian team had also played a handful of matches in Florida during their tours of the West Indies starting with a one-off T20I in 2016.

The 2024 T20 World Cup, however, marks the first time an ICC event involving Full Members is taking place on American soil, with a large chunk of the group stage matches taking place across three cities — New York City, Dallas and Lauderhill (Miami). The Men in Blue are scheduled to play three of their four group matches in the ‘Big Apple’, including the marquee clash against Pakistan on 9 June.

Additionally, the United States cricket team will be making its debut in the World Cup and its first appearance in an ICC event since the 2004 Champions Trophy. More importantly, it will get home support for once while rubbing shoulders with some of the most prominent teams in the sport.

A tournament bigger than ever

Last, but not the least, the 2024 T20 World Cup is one that will truly feel global, with the tournament expanding to 20 teams this year — making it the biggest cricketing event ever. That’s a jump from the 16 teams that had been part of the 2007 ODI World Cup in the Caribbean as well as the T20 World Cups from the 2014 edition onwards.

Teams such as Uganda are set to make their debut in a men’s ICC event while the United States will be making its first appearance in a limited-overs World Cup. A World Cup, after all, is the one tournament where some of the lower-ranked nations get to rub shoulders with the elite members and even highlight their progress as a cricketing nation with an inspirational performance or two that could also translate to an upset against some of the higher-ranked sides.

With the last two editions of the ODI World Cups being 10-team affairs, having twice as many sides in the upcoming tournament certainly feels like an upgrade.