The 2021 Men's T20 World Cup was later relocated to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman due to problems relating to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, taking place five years after the previous (2016) iteration.

A total of 15 countries have hosted the tournament (including 6 island nations of the West Indies).

When the Benson & Hedges Cup ended in 2002, the ECB sought another one-day competition to appeal to 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.

[1] 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.

[3] The first season of Twenty20 in England was a relative success, with the Surrey Lions defeating the Warwickshire Bears by 9 wickets in the final to claim the title.

[4] 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 1983.

[6] 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 penalty card (red cards are not normally used in cricket) in response.

[13] The 2010 World Twenty20 tournament, which was brought forward from 2011 to replace the ICC Champions Trophy, was held in the West Indies in May 2010, where England defeated Australia by 7 wickets in the final.

[18][19] In May 2016, the ICC proposed a World Twenty20 tournament in 2018, with South Africa being the possible host,[20] but this was later dropped as the top member nations were busied with multiple bilateral cricket events taking place in 2018.

[23][24] In July 2020, the ICC announced that the 2020 tournament had been postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and with Australian international travel restrictions not expected to be lifted until 2021,[25] the ICC chose to relocate the tournament to India, and award Australia the 2022 edition as compensation.

[34] The International Cricket Council's executive committee votes for the hosts of the tournament after examining bids from the nations which have expressed an interest in holding the event.

After South Africa in 2007,[35] the tournament was hosted by England, the West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 respectively.

[36] After a gap of five years, India won the hosting rights of the 2021 edition as well, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic the matches were played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

[39] In December 2015, Tim Anderson, the ICC's head of global development, suggested that a future tournament be hosted by the United States.

He believed that hosting the event could help spur growth of the game in the country, where it is relatively obscure and faces competition by other sports such as baseball.

[40] In 2020, the United States and West Indies expressed interest in co-hosting a T20 World Cup after 2023,[41] with Malaysia being another possible contender.

[60][61] In case of a tie (that is, both teams scoring the same number of runs at the end of their respective innings), a Super Over would decide the winner.

The table below provides a summary of the performances of teams over past T20 World Cups, as of the end of the 2024 tournament.

As of the 2024 tournament, former Indian captain Rohit Sharma and Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh are the only players to have appeared in all nine editions of the T20 World Cup.