History of the Men's T20 World Cup

When the Benson & Hedges Cup ended in 2002, the ECB sought another one-day competition to fill with the younger generation in response to dwindling crowds and reduced sponsorship.

The Board wanted to deliver fast-paced, exciting cricket accessible to fans who were put off by the longer versions of the game.

[3] Stuart Robertson, the marketing manager of the ECB, proposed a 20-over per innings game to county chairmen in 2001, and they voted 11–7 in favour of adopting the new format.

[6] The first Twenty20 match held at Lord's, on 15 July 2004 between Middlesex and Surrey, attracted a crowd of 27,509, the largest attendance for any county cricket game at the ground other than a one-day final since 1953.

[12][13] Indian Premier League (IPL) is a Twenty20 cricket tournament where 8 city based franchise teams from India participate for the title.

[17] On 17 February 2005 Australia defeated New Zealand in the first men's full international Twenty20 match, played at Eden Park in Auckland.

Some of the players also sported moustaches/beards and hair styles popular in the 1980s taking part in a competition amongst themselves for best retro look, at the request of the Beige Brigade.

Australia won the game comprehensively, and as the result became obvious towards the end of the NZ innings, the players and umpires took things less seriously – Glenn McGrath jokingly replayed the Trevor Chappell underarm incident from a 1981 ODI between the two sides, and Billy Bowden showed him a mock red card (red cards are not normally used in cricket) in response.

Besides the 10 full members, Kenya and Scotland were the other two teams participating in this tournament that was played on three different grounds, Wanderers, Kingsmead and Newlands.

But India eventually triumphed as Misbah-ul-Haq's attempted scoop off Joginder Sharma landed in the hands of Sreesanth at short fine-leg.

Australia were dominated by West Indies, largely thanks to a thunderous innings by Chris Gayle, as he hit 88 off 50 balls, including some of the largest sixes seen in England.

Australia were then defeated by Sri Lanka, who bowled tightly and batted with dominance, including quick-fire half centuries from Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara.

Pakistan managed to remove Dilshan, the Player of the Series for his 317 runs, without scoring, which had a big impact on the Sri Lanka innings.

Afridi proved this to be correct, hitting an unbeaten 54, which helped Man of the Match Pakistan win the trophy with 8 balls to spare.

England proved the surprise package, winning their first major limited-overs trophy with a comprehensive victory over Australia in the final.

The Australians had provided amazing fireworks in the semi-final when Pakistan appeared on course for a second final only for Michael Hussey to smash 26 from five deliveries (in a 24-ball 60 not out) to win the game with a ball to spare.

The significant strugglers were India and South Africa; one disturbed by the short ball, the other unable to pace a run chase.

[18] It was the first time the tournament took place in an Asian country, hosted by Sri Lanka in three cities; Colombo, Pallekele and Hambantota.

Imran Tahir of South Africa and Virat Kohli of India were the highest wicket taker and run scorer respectively.