Australia just captured the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, and if you’re looking to place a bet online for the next T20 champion, you’ll notice that Australia is the favourite to repeat next year in Melbourne.
The schedule has been a bit shuffled, first by COVID-19, which pushed the originally scheduled 2020 T20 World Cup to 2021. And the next edition will be held in 2022, as opposed to two years later, so as not to conflict with the ICC 50-Overs World Cup to be hosted by India in 2023.
India was to host the T20 tournament this year, but COVID spikes within the country moved all the matches to Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Favourites
As the defending champion and host nation, Australia is the betting favourite to win again in 2022. The Aussies are coming off their first World Cup win, although twice before they made it to the semifinals.
Champions in 2010, runner-up in 2016, and a semifinalist this year, England is just behind Australia. England is credited with creating T20 as a one-day alternative to standard cricket. It was also designed to be more attractive to a younger generation, who were often reluctant to attend the longer versions of the sport.
India is the third betting favourite for 2022. India won the inaugural ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2007. India was also the runner-up in 2014 and a semifinalist in 2016. This year they were knocked out in the second round with losses to Pakistan and New Zealand.
The New Zealand team that beat India and was the runner-up to Australia this year is the fourth betting favourite for 2022. The Black Caps, as the New Zealand cricket team is known, were also semifinalists in 2007 and 2016.
New Zealand is scheduled to be a co-host of the T20 World Cup with Australia in 2028.
Field Expansion
When the tournament began in 2007, there were 12 nations involved – Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and Zimbabwe.
In 2014 the field expanded to 16 teams, the same year that Hong Kong, Nepal, and UAE first appeared in the tournament. And expansion is coming again, with a 20-team field set to debut in 2024. That tournament is going to be jointly hosted by the United States, which has never qualified for the field, and the West Indies, which has never missed a tournament and won the championship in 2012 and 2016.
That 20-team tournament in 2024 will also mark the end of qualifying rounds. Instead, there will be four groups of five teams each before they move on to a Super 8 stage.
Two-thirds of the 2024 matches will be hosted by the West Indies, with the remaining matches to be played in the United States. The U.S. is not thought of as a hotbed of cricket, with most players in the country having roots from the Commonwealth nations. But the very first international cricket match did take place between Canada and the United States in 1844.
