ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024: 10 things you must know about the tournament

The ninth edition of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup is upon us. Having been shifted from Bangladesh to UAE, the tournament gets underway on Thursday with matches to be held in Dubai and Sharjah.

– Unlike the men’s event which was expanded for the 2024 edition, the women’s tournament is still restricted to 10 teams. Group A features Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Group B comprises of Bangladesh, England, Scotland, South Africa, and the West Indies.

– India are placed in the tougher of two groups alongside Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Pakistan. India begin their campaign against New Zealand on Friday (Oct 4), then take on Pakistan on Sunday (Oct 6). A repeat of the Asia Cup final follows against Sri Lanka (Oct 9). These three matches are in Dubai, and then the big one against Australia (Oct 13) is in Sharjah.

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– With only two teams progressing from each group into the semifinals (and Australia almost guaranteed to be one of those two from this group) India can’t afford any early slip-ups.

– This is the 9th edition of the tournament and Australia have won it a whopping six times, including the last three. England won the inaugural edition in 2009, which remains the only time Australia didn’t reach the final. West Indies won the title famously in 2016 at Eden Gardens.

The captains unwind before the battle begins at the Women's #T20WorldCup

🤩🔥#WhateverItTakes pic.twitter.com/2NHQ8ZAjpq — T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) October 2, 2024

– This will be the first ICC event where women will get the same prize money as their male counterparts. The winners of the tournament will receive USD 2.34million, up from USD 1 million that Australia got in 2023 by beating South Africa. That number will be beaten by the runners-up this time, who will now get USD 1.17 million. The decision was in July 2023 and comes into effect from this edition.

– The 10 umpires and three match referees for the tournament are all female officials, with India represented by GS Lakshmi (match referee who oversaw the 2023 final too) and umpire Vrinda Rathi. The Decision Review System (DRS) will also be available at all 28 matches, with a Hawk-eye Smart Replay system in place.

– Mithali Raj, Anjum Chopra and WV Raman will be the Indian voices present in the commentary panel. World Cup winners Mel Jones, Lisa Sthalekar, Stacy Ann King, Lydia Greenway, and Carlos Brathwaite will be joined by Katey Martin and former Pakistan captain Sana Mir. Other familiar voices will be Natalie Germanos, Ian Bishop, Kass Naidoo, Nasser Hussain, Alison Mitchell, and Mpumelelo Mbangwa.

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– The matches will be broadcast on the Star Sports network in India, with Disney+Hotstar being the online streaming platform. The day matches will start at 3.30 pm IST and the evening matches at 7.30 pm IST.

– Having been shifted from Bangladesh, the tournament will be hosted in two venues in UAE. World Cup gets underway at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on 3 October. Dubai International Stadium (DIS) is the other venue which will also host the Final on 20 October.

– India picked a squad without any major surprises and will be hoping to go one better than in 2020, when they reached the final of the event for the first time. India began their preparations for the World Cup with victory in both the warmup matches (vs WI and vs SA).

SQUAD: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sajana Sajeevan.

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