Melbourne prides itself as the sporting capital of the world and it's status has been reaffirmed by the announcement today that the Melbourne Cricket Ground will once again host the finals of the ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in the year 2020.
For the first time in cricket history, both the men’s and women’s tournaments will be played as stand-alone events in the same host country and year, and both finals will be played at the MCG.
While the women’s matches will be held in the months of February and March, the men will take the field in October and November.
As was in 2015 World Cup, MCG will host the final match of this flagship event.
Expressing his delight, the Visit Victoria Chief Executive Officer, Peter Bingeman said the opportunity to host the tournaments will go a long way in boosting Melbourne’s economic and tourism prospects.
“Melbourne is a city with a passionate love of sports, boasting an action-packed calendar of sporting and cultural events all year round. The ICC World T20 will be a huge addition to that list of offerings and we are proud to partner with the ICC [International Cricket Council], Cricket Australia, and the LOC [Local Organising Committee] on this global event.”
Meanwhile, Australian skipper Steve Smith said he was “already looking forward to 2020” and repeating the winning stride of the 2015 World Cup, which also featured the final at the MCG which seats 100,000 spectators.
Organisers are hoping the women’s final which will be held on March 8, which also happens to be the International Women’s Day will attract the biggest-ever crowd to a women’s sporting event in Australia, and even across the globe.
Expressing her excitement, Australia women’s team captain Meg Lanning told, “I’ve been in the crowd watching people play out there in front of 90,000 people and potentially the opportunity to be out there in the middle for that is really exciting.”
The world’s top 10 women’s teams and 16 men’s teams will contest for the prestigious titles respectively which will be held across a total of 13 stadiums in eight Australian cities including Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra, Geelong, Hobart, Perth and during the two events.
Cricket Australia and World T20 organising committee chairman David Peever said it will be their privilege to be hosting the events.
“Australia is extremely privileged to be hosting the ICC World T20 tournaments in 2020,” he said.
A complete schedule for the tournaments will be announced at a later date.
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