The Black Caps will play hosts and inaugural champions India in the first match of next year's Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in March in Nagpur, with the draw for the tournament announced on Saturday morning.
The Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum during the one-day World Cup. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium and the Ferozeshah Kotla in New Delhi will host the two semi-finals while Kolkata's Eden Gardens will stage the final of the 27-day tournament, to be held across eight venues in India from March 8th to April 3rd.
Eight teams have been split into two groups for the qualifying stage from March 8-13. Two of them will progress to the Super 10 stage of the event, which will see a 86 percent jump in total prize money to $5.6 million for the men's section from the last edition in Bangladesh in 2014.
The total prize money for the women's event, to be played simultaneously with the men's, is $400,000, a 122 percent increase from the previous event.
Defending men's champions Sri Lanka have been placed in group one of the Super 10 stage along with South Africa, West Indies, England and a qualifier.
Group two of the Super 10 stage will see hosts India, who won the inaugural tournament in South Africa in 2007, pooled alongside arch-rivals Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and another qualifier.
The high-voltage match between bitter neighbours India and Pakistan will be played on March 19th in picturesque Dharamsala.
- Reuters
