Published: Dec 11, 2015, 02:40 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 13, 2016, 05:49 PM (IST)
The ICC World T20 2016 to be held in India was officially launched in Mumbai at an ICC event. At the event the much awaited schedule and fixtures were announced and it was confirmed that India and Pakistan would play each other at Dharamsala on March 19. The first match of the tournament proper will be held at Nagpur between India and New Zealand on March 15. The tournament will be preceded by a preliminary qualification stage which will see six associate teams battle it out with Bangladesh and Zimbabwe for two spots to make it to the tournament proper. ALSO READ: India-Pakistan ICC World T20 2016 clash confirmed for March 19 at Dharamsala
The tournament will last from March 15 to April 3. The final has been awarded to Eden Gardens, Kolkata while Mumbai and New Delhi will play host to one semi-final each. The other venues include Bengaluru, Dharamsala, Mohali and Nagpur.
The ICC World T20 2016 hosting rights were awarded to India and will see a total of 16 teams compete in two rounds. The first round will be to determine two teams from a pool of eight to qualify into the tournament proper. The preliminary round to determine the two qualifiers will be Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Scotland, Ireland, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Afghanistan and Oman. Out of these, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe automatically got in the pool on account of being bottom-ranked full members. The other six teams got through on basis of their standings in a 14-team qualifying tournament. ICC World T20 2016 Round 1 schedule: Match time table and ground details
In the table below, Qualifier from Group A of the preliminary stage has been denoted as ‘Q1A’ and the corresponding qualifier from Group B has been referred to as ‘Q1B’. The teams in Group A of the qualifiers include Bangladesh, Netherlands, Ireland and Oman. While, Zimbabwe, Scotland, Hong Kong and Afghanistan are in Group B.
| DATE & TIME | MATCHES | VENUE |
| Tue, Mar 8, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | Hong Kong vs Zimbabwe | Nagpur |
| Tue, Mar 8, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | Afghanistan vs Scotland | Nagpur |
| Wed, Mar 9, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | Bangladesh vs Netherlands | Dharamsala |
| Wed, Mar 9, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | Ireland vs Oman | Dharamsala |
| Thurs, Mar 10, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | Scotland vs Zimbabwe | Nagpur |
| Thurs, Mar 10, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | Afghanistan vs Hong Kong | Nagpur |
| Fri, Mar 11, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | Oman vs Netherlands | Dharamsala |
| Fri, Mar 11, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | Bangladesh vs Ireland | Dharamsala |
| Sat, Mar 12, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | Afghanistan vs Zimbabwe | Nagpur |
| Sat, Mar 12, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | Hong Kong v Scotland | Nagpur |
| Sun, Mar 13, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | Ireland vs Netherlands | Dharamsala |
| Sun, Mar 13, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | Bangladesh vs Oman | Dharamsala |
| Tue, Mar 15, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | India vs New Zealand | Nagpur |
| Wed, Mar 16, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | Pakistan vs Bengal | Kolkata |
| Wed, Mar 16, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | England vs West Indies | Mumbai |
| Thurs, Mar 17, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan | Kolkata |
| Fri, Mar 18, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | New Zealand vs Australia | Dharamsala |
| Fri, Mar 18, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | South Africa vs England | Mumbai |
| Sat, Mar 19, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | India vs Pakistan | Kolkata |
| Sun, Mar 20, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | South Africa vs Afghanistan | Mumbai |
| Sun, Mar 20, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | Sri Lanka vs West Indies | Bengaluru |
| Mon, Mar 21, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | Australia vs TBA | Bengaluru |
| Tue, Mar 22, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | New Zealand vs Pakistan | Mohali |
| Wed, Mar 23, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | England vs Afghanistan | Delhi |
| Wed, Mar 23, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | India vs TBA | Bengaluru |
| Fri, Mar 25, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | Australia vs Pakistan | Mohali |
| Fri, Mar 25, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | South Africa vs West Indies | Nagpur |
| Sat, Mar 26, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | New Zealand vs TBA | Kolkata |
| Sat, Mar 26, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | England vs Sri Lanka | Delhi |
| Sun, Mar 27, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | West Indies vs Afghanistan | Nagpur |
| Sun, Mar 27, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:30 IST | 14:00 GMT | India vs Australia | Mohali |
| Mon, Mar 28, 2016 (20 Ovs), 15:00 IST | 09:30 GMT | South Africa vs Sri Lanka | Delhi |
| Wed, Mar 30, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:00 IST | 13:30 GMT | TBA vs TBA, Semi-Final 1 | Delhi |
| Thurs, Mar 31, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:00 IST | 13:30 GMT | TBA vs TBA, Semi-Final 2 | Mumbai |
| Sun, Apr 3, 2016 (20 Ovs), 19:00 IST | 13:30 GMT | TBA v TBA, Final | Kolkata |
Kolkata has the biggest capacity of all Indian grounds and is therefore no surprise that they have been awarded the final.
