USA was supposed to host the T20 World Cup 2024 along with West Indies. However, as per the reports USA cricket has been removed as the co-host of the marquee event by the International Cricket Council (ICC) while West Indies is all set to be sole host for T20 WC 2024.
Lack of clarity leads to removal of USA Cricket as the co-host of T20 WC 2024
T20 World Cup 2024 is scheduled to be played in the months of June and July in 2024. According to a report by Cricket Next, USA cricket has been stripped as the co-host of the mega event. Sources have also confirmed that West Indies will host the event alone without any other co-host.
“For jointly hosted World Cups we often contract with the Full Member (FM) as the host who is fully responsible for the delivery of the Event. The FM would then have a staging agreement with the relevant Members to ensure the successful staging of World Cup matches in other countries. In this case, Cricket West Indies have been contracted as World Cup hosts,” ICC sources informed.
It’s worth noting that after being awarded the co-hosting rights, there has been no clarity whatsoever on who exactly is running the affairs of USA Cricket. This has probably lead to the removal of the USA as the co-host of T20 WC 2024.
The USA was the first country to get the status of an associate member by the ICC. In April 2022, ICC confirmed the direct qualification of the USA and West Indies for being the co-host of the marquee event.
ICC had also banned the US Cricket Federation in the past. Currently, the International Cricket Council continues to run its affairs in the USA through its employees. Ricky Skerritt who was a part of the ICC nominations committee had played a major role in USA Cricket being nominated as the co-host.
“The qualification pathway for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 was confirmed with 12 teams qualifying automatically for the event. The top eight teams from the 2022 event will be joined by the two host Members, West Indies and USA plus the next highest-ranked teams on the MRF ICC Men’s T20 rankings table as of 14 November 2022. If West Indies finish in the top eight in Australia later this year, three teams will progress based on rankings and if outside the top eight two teams will qualify from the rankings table,” the ICC release had stated in April, 2022.
