The 2016 ICC World Twenty20 will be the sixth ICC World Twenty20 tournament and will be held in India from March 8 to April 3. There have been five different winners of the men’s event while the England women’s team won the inaugural tournament at home in 2009 before Australia won three straight titles in the West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
in 2010, 2012 and 2014, respectively.
A total of 58 tournament matches, 35 men’s matches and 23 women’s matches, will be played in the 27-day tournament in Bengaluru, Chennai, Dharamsala, Kolkata, Mohali, Mumbai, Nagpur and New Delhi. New Delhi and Mumbai will host the semi-finals on 30 and 31 March, respectively, while Eden Gardens in Kolkata will be the venue of the 3 April finals. The women’s semi-finals and final will be followed by the men’s knock-out matches. There is a reserve day for the finals. For the second time, the tournament will feature 16 teams. All ten full members will qualify automatically, and are joined by the six Associate Members that qualified through the 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, played in Ireland and Scotland between 6 to 26 July 2015. The qualifying teams are Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Oman. Prior to the qualifying tournament, Oman only had Twenty20 status, but with their progression to their first World Twenty20 tournament, they gained full Twenty20 International status.
The top eight teams in the ICC T20I Championship rankings automatically progress to the Super 10 stage, unless one of the top eight is an associate in which case the next ranked full member will progress in their place. The remaining eight teams compete in the group stage, from which two teams advance to the Super 10 stage.