Twelve days in March have been set aside for the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE, in which 16 teams will compete for two spots at the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka in September.
The tournament will be played at five venues - Dubai International Cricket Stadium and ICC Global Cricket Academy grounds No 1 and No 2 in Dubai; Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Zayed Stadium; and Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
The competition will open on March 13 and close on March 24.
The tournament winners will go into a group along with Australia and West Indies. The losing finalists will be grouped with the defending champions England and 2007 champions India. The 16 teams have been divided into two groups, with Afghanistan, the Netherlands, Canada, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Denmark and Nepal in Group A, and Ireland, Kenya, Scotland, Namibia, Uganda, Oman, Italy and the United States in Group B.
The UAE missed the tournament after they were eliminated at the group stage of the recent Asian Twenty20 Cup in Nepal. This will be the third ICC World Twenty20 qualifier. When it was last staged, also in the UAE in 2010, Afghanistan and Ireland claimed the qualifying spots.
[ @ For more on CRICKET visit thenational.ae/topics ]
