ICC World T20

   

ICC World T20 gets underway at Lord's 

Most explosive format of cricket returns to its birthplace England when the second edition of the ICC World Twenty20 begins on Friday at Lord's with hosts taking on outsiders the Netherlands.

A 30-minute colourful ceremony will mark the opening of the 12-team competition with Britain's popular artiste Alesha Dixon taking the stage to provide a rousing curtain-raiser.

England had introduced that shortest format in county cricket in 2003, but this version of the game gained much popularity among the cricketing nations after India, the commercial hub of cricket, won the inaugural edition two years ago.

England open up against the Netherlands in the first of their two Group B matches, kicks off at 10:30pm BdST, with Pakistan set to face England at The Oval on Sunday.

Bangladesh will open their Group A campaign against holders and favourites India on Saturday while Australia play the West Indies on the same day in Group C.

All 17,000 tickets of the Bangladesh-India match have already been sold out and tickets for the other matches scheduled to be held in the city are also selling fast. According to the latest count, only 400 tickets have remained unsold for the semi-final match to be held in the city on June 18.

There are four groups of three, with the top two from each group going through to the Super Eights which will be made up of two groups of four.

The top two from each of those groups go into the semi-finals to be played at Trent Bridge and The Oval. The final will be staged at Lord's on June 21.

Among the 10 Test-playing nations, Zimbabwe are missing the tournament due to the political reasons while three associate members – Ireland, the Netherlands and Scotland – have qualified for the men's tournament through the qualifying round held in Belfast last year.

Back to the inaugural match, in pace bowler Dirk Nannes, who plays at Lord's for Middlesex, the Dutch have a left-arm quick who can swing the ball late.

Australia-born Nannes didn't hit top form during the Netherlands's recent warm-up games against Ireland and Scotland but if the seamer, who also plays for Indian Premier League side the Delhi Daredevils, is at his best then England need to watch out.

All-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate is another key figure for the Dutch and this match could see him in action against at least two of his Essex team-mates in opening batsman Ravi Bopara and wicketkeeper James Foster, with the big-hitting Graham Napier also in England's squad.

But Netherlands captain and wicketkeeper Jeroen Smits is convinced his side can start the tournament proper with an almighty bang. "I'm sure we can spring a surprise," he said. "We have a quality 20-over team.

England have never won a major one-day tournament and, despite pioneering cricket's shortest format at county level, are not among the favourites now.

They struggled to get past Scotland in a warm-up match before overwhelming the West Indies, a side they've beaten comfortably in Tests and one-dayers this season, in another practice match on Wednesday.