Zimbabwe draw India in 2009 ICC T20 World Champs

Zimbabwe draw India in 2009 ICC T20 World Champs

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By Sports Reporter

THE International Cricket Council has announced the draw for the 2009 Twenty20 Championship, with Zimbabwe being placed in a tricky pool alongside defending champions India and emerging powerhouse Bangladesh.

The world body emerged from a two-day meeting held in Dubai from 30-31 October, to announce the full draw with other issues - such as the Zimbabwe Cricket finances - also being discussed at the indaba.

But it is the draw of the second edition of the shortest version of the game, which has taken centre-stage among stakeholders.

“The Board discussed the groupings for this event following a request by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), who will be the 2009 hosts. It asked for early determination in order to proceed with the venue, event-bidding process which, in turn, would allow match tickets to go on sale at the earliest possible opportunity,” an ICC statement said.

“Given that not enough matches have been played in this format to allow viable official rankings to be established, the Board agreed the groups for the 2009 event would be based on the finishing positions in the 2007 tournament.”

The full draw, with finishing positions at 2007 edition in brackets, will be as follows:

Group A: India (1), Bangladesh (8), Zimbabwe (9)
Group B: Pakistan (2), England (7), Associate 1 (10)
Group C: Australia (3), Sri Lanka (6), West Indies (11)
Group D: New Zealand (4), South Africa (5), Associate 2 (12)

Meanwhile, the ICC board announced it is still going through a KPMG report, which was instituted to investigate Zimbabwe Cricket finances in September.

The ICC said: “The Board received an update concerning the forensic audit of Zimbabwe Cricket, being carried out by accountancy firm KPMG of South Africa. The report is still being finalised and the Board was told an undertaking has been received for it to be completed as soon as possible.”
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