Prize money at the T20 Cricket World Cup which starts tomorrow in India and Sri Lanka is expected to be more than what it was at the last edition held in 2024.
At the last event held in the Caribbean, India the winners picked up a purse of 2.45 million US dollars or in Sri Lanka money equivalent to Rs. 620 million.
Even for just taking part and making up the numbers teams at the 2024 event were paid 225,000 US dollars each or in Sri Lanka money Rs. 67 million each.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) which runs the T20 World Cup is yet to announce how much money the 2026 winners will receive and according to insiders the amount could double.
The ICC is currently under fire for removing Bangladesh from the World Cup after they asked for their matches to be played in Sri Lanka citing security concerns in India. Scotland replaced Bangladesh.
The runners-up, semifinalists and Super Eight teams are also likely to have their prize
money doubled.
Pakistan and the Netherlands will herald the start of the T20 World Cup tomorrow at the SSC ground in Colombo with the first ball scheduled to be bowled
at 11 am.
Two other games will be played on the same day with the West Indies taking on Scotland at 3 pm at Kolkota followed by India hosting the USA at 7 pm
in Mumbai.
The last match for the day will be New Zealand meeting Afghanistan in Chennai
at 9.30 pm.
Twenty teams are in the fray in four groups of five teams in each group and the top two teams from each group will move into the next stage called the Super Eight.
The Super Eight will have four teams in two groups and the winners and runners-up of two groups will move into the semifinals.
Sri Lanka in the preliminary stage is grouped with Australia, Ireland, Oman
and Zimbabwe.
Sri Lanka will meet Ireland on Sunday at the Premadasa Staddium in Colombo with the first ball scheduled to be
bowled at 5.30 pm.