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World Cup is the biggest tournament that takes place in ICC Tournaments and the T20 World Cup is the most popular format around the World people are ready to watch the shorter format of the game. It doesn’t take your full day and it guarantees entertainment in just 40 games. The new generation doesn’t have that much time to watch every 50 over or five-day-long games, which is why they find the T20 format more engaging and entertaining. This format has evolved seamlessly across the cricketing nations due to domestic leagues such as IPL, BBL, etc, but there are still so many associate nations that are ready to accept the glamour of T20 cricket but they don’t have that special reason to decide between buying an expensive ticket for the cricket. It’s the first time when any associate country has officially hosted a T20 World Cup, The USA will be hosting the T20 World Cup 2024 along with West Indies and due to hosting USA has automatically qualified for the tournament and will be opening the competition with Canada. In this article, we’ll talk about three times when an associate country got the official hosting of an ICC Tournament. We won’t include T20 World Cup 2021 which took place in UAE because India was the official hosting country but due to the pandemic the tournament has shifted for a good cause.
World Cup 2003, Champions Trophy 2000 – Kenya
Kenya was one of the strongest associate teams between the late 90s and early 2000s. Kenya has given so many great memories to fans in the field which could never be forgotten. Kenya along with being the first associate team to qualify for the semifinals of the World Cup is also the first associate team to host an ICC trophy while participating in it. Kenya got their first hosting of the second ICC Champions Trophy in 2000 and after the successful tournament, ICC gave them another chance in the 2003 World Cup to host along with South Africa. Unfortunately, Kenya lost against India in the pre-quarterfinal of the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy but in the 2003 World Cup, they managed to qualify for the semi-finals and became the first associate nation to reach the milestone. In the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy Kenya was the only host of the tournament and that was a big achievement for the country, it helped to increase the popularity and seriousness of cricket in the nation. Indian star players Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan made their ODI debuts in this tournament. Six test-playing teams were playing in this tournament along with two associates which were Kenya and Bangladesh. The Tournament was won by New Zealand after beating India in the final by four Wickets. That tournament was a success and after that, ICC decided to share the hosting of South Africa in the 2003 World Cup with Kenya and Zimbabwe which was again a great decision taken by ICC. Kenya got only two games of the tournament which took place in only one stadium. In both two games, Kenya played against New Zealand and Sri Lanka respectively. Kenya won both of the games one by beating Sri Lanka in the ground and the other by New Zealand’s absence. The tournament was won by Australia after beating India in the finals.
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ICC Champions Trophy 1998 – Bangladesh
1998 was the year when the first ICC Champions took place in an associate nation that now is a full-time member of the ICC. Bangladesh got its test-playing status in 2000 but before that, it hosted an ICC Trophy by itself. It was the launch season of a new ICC tournament and ICC decided to give it to an associate member so they cricket could grow more in non-test playing nations, the ICC was right, after two years of that tournament Bangladesh got their test-playing status in 2000. Initially, this tournament was called as Wills International Cup or ICC Knockout Trophy. All nine test-playing nations have participated in this tournament and South Africa became the first title holder after demolishing West Indies in the final by four Wickets. Associate countries were not invited to this tournament so Bangladesh itself wasn’t participating in this competition. There was only one pre-quarterfinal game was played in that tournament which was between New Zealand and Zimbabwe. It was a total knockout stage game where Zimbabwe, England, Australia, and Pakistan were the teams that got knocked out in their first game of the tournament.
T20 World Cup 2024 – USA
United States of America is going to become the first associate country to host an ICC T20 tournament. This year’s T20 World is getting good hype due to the host because America is a very big and powerful country and ICC’s effort to make the game popular in that country will be very helpful for the future of the game. The USA has already Qualified for the tournament due to hosting and will be opening the World Cup with Canada. The USA and Canada will be the first two teams that have played an opening game of an ICC tournament. If we go back in history the first evidence of a cricket game was found in 1844 which was between these two teams. In that test match which was held between two neighbouring counties on 24 to 26 September Canada won the game by 23 runs so this could be a big rivalry in the cricketing world such as Australia vs England and India vs Pakistan. India plays their all games in the USA which is also a big success for the USA because the world is aware of the Indian cricket team and their fans so it would be a treat for the easy for Americans to watch the Indian team playing on their soil. This tournament could help USA Cricket to grow and people from that country to follow cricket as they follow baseball and basketball. This is not the first time that ICC has tried to spread Cricket in the USA, even before this ICC has organized games of tours of big test-playing nations like India and West Indies. One of the KL Rahul’s T20I century came in American Soil.
Also Read: Laws of Cricket: understanding the fifth Law of Cricket ‘The Bat’
