ICC Announce 2020 World T20 Venues; MCG to Host Final

The International Cricket Council (ICC), on Tuesday (January 30), announced the venues for the men’s and women’s World T20 tournaments in 2020.

The events in 2020 will mark the first instance where men and women’s tournaments will be standalone events in the same host country. The upcoming tournament will also be the first World T20 being held in Australia who have co-hosted two 50-over World Cups.

The women’s competition will be held from February 21 to March 8, while the men’s will be held from October 18 to November 15. Both the finals will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground – the same venue which hosted the 2015 ODI World Cup and was attended by a record 93,013 fans.

The tournaments will be hosted by eight cities which are Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Geelong, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. In the women’s event, the top 10 ranked teams in the world will be fighting it out for the elusive trophy while in the men’s event, the top 16 teams in the world will battle for the top prize.

Women’s group matches will be played at the WACA Ground, Melbourne’s Junction Oval, Canberra’s Manuka Oval and Sydney’s Spotless Stadium, with warm-ups scheduled to be played at Brisbane’s Allan Border Field and Adelaide’s Gladys Elphick Park. The semi-finals will be played at the SCG.

Along with the MCG, SCG and the Adelaide Oval, men’s matches will be played at Perth Stadium, Geelong’s Kardinia Park, the Gabba and Blundstone Arena in Hobart. The SCG and the Adelaide Oval will host the semi-finals. West Indies are the reigning men and women’s World T20 champions.

“Australia is extremely privileged to be hosting the ICC World T20 tournaments in 2020. On behalf of Cricket Australia and the Local Organising Committee, I would like to sincerely thank Government at both Federal and State and Territory level, host cities, venues and State and Territory Cricket Associations for their exceptional support, which is so critical for delivering the best possible events in 2020,” said David Peever, Chairman of Cricket Australia and the ICC World T20 2020 Local Organising Committee.

“ICC World T20 2020 provides a unique opportunity to engage the whole community and inspire the next generation to love cricket,” Peever added.

Australia skipper Steve Smith also expressed his excitement, saying:

“We are looking forward to it. Looking back to 2015 with the World Cup in Australia, just the support we had… and all the games like India vs South Africa (85,000 at the MCG)… was something incredible.”