Twenty20 cricket is the modern and very appealing form of Cricket. Its due to its amazing popularity that ICC has decided to organize Twenty2o International Worldcup. The first ever Twenty20 worldcup, held in SouthAfrica, is going to start from today.12 teams will participate in this Worldcup which will take approximately 2-weeks before its completion. Since its start in England in 2003, Cricket's shortest form has proved spectacular due to its fast paced kind of nature.There will be a fantastic and colorful inauguration ceremony to kick-off the things. It will be broadcasted Live on all major sports channels throughout the world at around 2:30 GMT. All of the Pakistani viewers can watch it live and exclusive at Geo Super!
Around 2 hours after the inauguration ceremony we are going to have the first and today's mainevent match between WestIndies Vs Southafrica. Southafrica ,having quite an experience in Twenty20 cricket and home advantage, is considered as second favourite behind the ODI champion Australia.
All of the teams are divided in 4 groups(A,B,C & D) with each group constituting 3 teams. The top 2 teams from each group will take it over to the next round. The top eight teams in the 2nd round will be divided into two groups, where top two from each group will make it to the semi-finals.
Talking about the history of Twenty20 internationals ,only 19 matches have been played so far since the first Twenty20 international in February 2005. But even then almost whole world have recognised the growing popularity of this version of cricket, therefore having domestic twenty20 cricket tournaments in Pakistan, Southafrica, WestIndies with India soon joining the list.
The team combinations have changed quite a bit for this Twenty20 when compared against the regular One day Internationals. Indian batting stars Sourav ganguly, Rahul dravid and Sachin Tandulkar are sitting out while the dashing wicket-keeper batemen Mahindra Singh Dhoni has been promoted for the job of Captain. Dhoni has an amazing strike rate of around 98 in ODIs but is yet to score a single run in twenty20 Internationals.
Australia are going into the tournament without the legendry pacemen Mc.Grath, who recently retired from International arena, and the emerging player of the year 'Shaun Tait' but the speedstar Bret Lee,Who missed the ODI worldcup due to injury, is back in action this time.
Srilanka are forced to go into the tournament without the lethal Murali ,who is suffering from injury, while the hosts have surprisingly rested their star ODI all-rounder Jacque Kallis.
England have a bunch of ODI stars plus some Twenty20 specialists but their chance in the tournament will still be hovering over Flintoff's performance and fitness.
Pakistan, on paper, look to have a great side particularly targetting the Twenty20 situations. The team will be working under the new leadership of Shoaib malik. Pakistan have quite a no. of hard hitters like Afridi and Imran Nazir which really boost their chance in thier 20 overs Worldcup. But they will surely miss their speedster Shoaib Akhtar ( ahh...really???) who is back to pakistan after creating yet another issue. He was sent back to Pakistan after he thrashed Muhammad Asif with a bat.Just like Southafrica, Pakistan has also ommited their star Batsmen and 2007 test player of the year Muhammad Yousuf,who seems to join ICL this year.
Pakistan actually have the best record in this format with 3 wins out of four matches they played, while their Faisalabad wolves are the world club champions in Twenty20 cricket.
England,Pakistan,Srilanka,Zimbabwe and Australia are amongst the number of teams with coaches participating in their first major tournaments.
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