(CMC) – Recently dethroned champions, West Indies, will start their ICC Twenty20 World campaign against minnows Scotland, in their quest to qualify for the main draw of the Australian showpiece in October.

The Caribbean side are two-time champions but produced a wretched defence of their 2016 title when they finished one from bottom of their group at the tournament staged in United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year, and failed to qualify for the final four.

They will clash with the Scots on October 16 at Bellerive Oval in Hobart – one of three first-round matches for the Kieron Pollard-led unit at the Tasmanian venue.
West Indies also take on a yet-to-be-determined qualifying team on October 19 and yet another qualifier two days later in Group B.

If they win their group, West Indies will be installed in Group 2 of the Super 12 main draw alongside Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and South Africa. Should they finish as runners-up, they will occupy Group 1 with the likes of Afghanistan, Australia, England and New Zealand.

Sri Lanka are the other major Test-playing nation who will be forced to go through the first round with West Indies.
African minnows Namibia are the fourth team already in the opening round.

“T20 is the global growth format for cricket and the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 will play a huge role in inspiring our next generation of players and fans as the world’s best players descend on Australia and showcase the very best of our sport,” said ICC chief executive, Geoff Allardice, on the announcement of the fixture list.

“The release of fixtures is always a great moment in the delivery of a World Cup as fans start to get excited about opening games, head-to-heads and knock-out stages.

“This schedule offers so much, from the 2014 Champions Sri Lanka opening the event to our defending champions Australia starting with a rematch of the 2021 Men’s T20 World Cup Final against New Zealand and of course India taking on Pakistan at the MCG.

“We know that hundreds of thousands of passionate cricket fans will turn out to support every single one of the 16 teams across all seven of our host cities which is what makes it so special for the players.”

The hosts’ clash with New Zealand in Sydney will mark the start of the Super 12s on October 22 with bitter rivals India and Pakistan taking on each other in Melbourne 24 hours later.

The two top in each group will qualify for the semi-finals on November 9 and 10 in Sydney and Adelaide respectively, with the final carded for Melbourne on November 13.