One of the world’s most significant sporting events comes to New York this week.
The ICC T20 Cricket World Cup, which begins Saturday, will be co-hosted by the U.S. and the West Indies, with eight matches (including India vs. Pakistan) scheduled to be played at the newly constructed Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in Eisenhower Park on Long Island.
You read that right. There’s a 34,000-seat cricket stadium in Eisenhower Park.
For the uninitiated, Twenty20 or T20 cricket is a shorter format of the sport where each team bats for 20 overs (one over consists of six balls) at a time.
Whichever team scores the most runs wins the match.
The 2024 T20 World Cup features a field of 20 countries split into four groups of five. After a round robin, the top two teams in each group will advance into the next phase.
From there, the remaining eight teams will be split into groups of four and play in another round robin with the top two teams in each set qualifying for the semifinals.
India (+275, DraftKings) is the consensus tournament favorite, but its got company at the top of the board in the form of Australia (+350) and the defending champions, England (+450).
South Africa (+650), the West Indies (+800), Pakistan (+800) and New Zealand (+950) and Pakistan (+1000) are the only other teams listed under 35/1.
Team USA, which just collected two famous victories over Bangladesh in a warm-up series last week, is 500/1 to win the tournament and 65/1 to advance out of the group stage.
One of the reasons that T20 cricket has risen in popularity is that it is a lot more unpredictable compared to longer formats of the sport.
That’s led to some shocking upsets over the years and a couple of surprise winners.
Will we see another one?
The West Indies was a bitter disappointment in the 2022 T20 World Cup, but things have started to trend in the right direction for the Men in Maroon of late.
The Windies closed out 2023 with a 3-2 series win over England and then kicked off 2024 with an encouraging tour of Australia that introduced the world to Shamar Joseph, a former logger from the jungles of Guyana who has become one of the sport’s emerging talents against hard-to-comprehend odds.
The West Indies will have to contend with New Zealand and Afghanistan to get out of Group C, but being drawn into a tough group isn’t always a bad thing because it means you’ll be in good form if you do advance.
The Windies have the seventh-highest ELO rating in the field, but the crowd and familiar conditions should provide enough of a boost to make them worth a shot at this price.
Let’s get this out of the way: Ireland is not going to win the T20 World Cup and the Men in Green are unlikely to get out of Group A (which features India and Pakistan).
That said, Ireland is vastly improving and showed incredibly well in the 2022 World Cup.
Not only did the Irish get out of the group stage, but they beat England along the way.
Instead of betting on Ireland to advance or do something crazy like win Group A, I’d suggest backing them to pull off an upset against Pakistan on June 16.