About Twenty20

Twenty20 is the newest form of cricket where each team bats for a maximum of only 20 overs a side, with each innings lasting for 75 minutes.

Twenty20 cricket was first introduced at county level by the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2003 and such was the success of the format of the sport, the game quickly spread around the world with the first men’s full Twenty20 international taking place in February 2005 between New Zealand and Australia.

The ICC Board agreed to the inclusion of an ICC World Twenty20 competition at a meeting in April 2006.

It was agreed that the inaugural event would take place in South Africa in September 2007, with the second event scheduled for England and Wales during the ICC’s Centenary Year in 2009.

The remaining period up to 2015 will be taken up either by one or two further ICC World Twenty20, depending on the success of those first two events.

The ICC Board also agreed in April 2006 to cap the number of matches each Full Members can play within a 12 month period to a maximum of three home matches, including no more than 2 series.

That decision was based on the desire to preserve the primacy of the existing formats of Test and One-Day International cricket, the view of some Members that Twenty20 should be viewed more as a development tool and the need to ensure player workloads were kept under control.