Format of ICC World Twenty20 2009

ICC World Twenty20 2009 cricket tournament feature 12 teams in the men's tournament and eight teams in the women's competition. The following is the grouping of teams in the men's event:

Men's Event Grouping
Group A: India (A1), Bangladesh (A2), Ireland
Group B: Pakistan (B1), England (B2), Netherlands
Group C: Australia (C1), Sri Lanka (C2), West Indies
Group D: New Zealand (D1), South Africa (D2), Scotland

The symbol within the brackets indicate the seeding of the respective team. A1 means India is ranked number one in Group A. Bangladesh is ranked second in group A, so it is A2. Teams like Ireland, Netherlands, West Indies and Scotland are unseeded.

Preliminary Stage
The teams will play each other within the group once and the top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super Eights stage. As such, each group will have three matches. At group stage, there will be 12 matches in all.

Irrespective of where the teams finish within the group, they will carry over their seeding. If an unseeded team enters the Super Eights stage, then they will take over the seeding of the team that is eliminated.

Super Eight Groups:
Group E: A1, B2, C1, D2
Group F: A2, B1, C2, D1

In the Super Eights stage, each team will play the other team within the group once and the top two teams from each group will clash in the semifinals. At the Super Eights stage, there will be 12 matches again.

Semi-finals:
1st Match: Winner of Group E (E1) vs Runner-up in Group F (F2)
2nd Match: Winner of Group F (F1) vs Runner-up in Group E (E2)

So, ICC World Twenty20 2009 Men's Event will have 27 matches, which will be played from 05 June 2009 with the finals on 21 June 2009.