Indian cricketers (from left) Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane pose with the ICC World Twenty20 trophy during the tournament’s launch event in Mumbai yesterday. A total of 58 matches, including 35 men’s matches and 23 women’s matches, will be played in the 27-day tournament in eight Indian cities—Bangalore, Chennai, Dharamsala, Kolkata, Mohali, Mumbai, Nagpur and New Delhi. (AFP)

Reuters/Mumbai


Hosts and inaugural champions India will kick off the Super 10 stage of the World Twenty20 with a March 15 match in Nagpur against New Zealand in the sixth edition of the tournament offering a record $5.6 million in prize money.
Mumbai and New Delhi will host the two semi-finals while Kolkata’s Eden Gardens will stage the final of the March 8-April 3 tournament, to be played across eight venues in India, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced yesterday.
Defending men’s champions Sri Lanka have been placed in Group One of the Super 10 stage along with South Africa, 2010 winners England, 2012 champions West Indies and a qualifier.
Group Two will include India, 2009 champions Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and a second qualifier.
“India has hosted World Cups in 1987, 1996 and 2011. We can assure you this time it will be bigger, better and most entertaining,” Indian board (BCCI) secretary Anurag Thakur said at the launch ceremony in Mumbai yesterday.
Eight teams have been split into two groups for the qualifying stage from March 8-13.
Two of them will progress to the Super 10 stage of the event, which will see a 86 percent jump in total prize money for the men’s competition from the last edition in Bangladesh in 2014. The total prize money for the women’s event, to be played simultaneously with the men’s, is $400,000, a 122 percent increase from the previous tournament.
Bitter neighbours India and Pakistan, who have been wrangling over a bilateral series this month, will clash in a March 19 contest in picturesque Dharamsala, against the backdrop of Northern Indian mountains.
“We need a cooler climate for such a high-voltage contest,” Thakur quipped.
ICC chairman Shashank Manohar promised a successful tournament in the game’s financial powerhouse. “India is a country where cricket is a religion and not many places can match the passion for the game like (in) India,” said Manohar, who is also the BCCI president.
“I am fully confident that the BCCI will deliver an outstanding world cricket event.”   

Kohli plays down favourites tag
Meanwhile, Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli played down India’s status as favourites for the World Twenty20, saying their rivals’ experience of playing in the IPL had robbed the tournament’s hosts of home advantage.
Speaking at a promotional event for the trophy, the swashbuckling batsman said many players expected to star in the tournament had grown familiar with local conditions through the annual Indian Premier League (IPL).  
“So many players all around the world have played in the IPL for eight-nine years now, so they are pretty familiar with the Indian conditions,” he said. “It’s not such a big home advantage anymore and, especially with formats like T20 where the cricket is so quick, any team could be a favourite.”
Kohli said that India’s recent defeat against South Africa in a T20 series that preceded the just-completed Test series showed that foreign players “know where to bowl and which shots to hit in Indian conditions”.
Bookmakers have India as 3-1 favourites to win the tournament, with Australia priced at 5-1.
The IPL is also usually held in April, featuring players from most of the leading countries in world cricket.
Kohli was part of the team which won the 50-overs  World Cup on home soil in 2011 but he was on the losing side when India lost the last World T20 against Sri Lanka in Bangladesh in 2013. Although he skippers the Test side, he is expected to be back in the ranks during the World T20 under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.