Henry Moeran

The fourth edition of the tournament in 2012.

held in Sri Lanka.

Well this was a tournament that saw England coming into the competition as reigning champions but their reign would be short-lived with West Indies lifting the title at the Primadasa Stadium against the hosts and arguably favourites for that final, Sri Lanka.

But what about the story of the tournament?

Well one player who was involved in the England squad was Stephen Finn, England's leading wicket-taker with eight in the tournament and following all the action.

My overriding memory is the West Indies doing the Gangnam style dance almost every day of the trip it felt like.

If we go through how the tournament worked, first and foremost, it was a competition that saw four groups of three, just 27 matches compared to the 2026 edition where 55 games take place.

It's less than half as many games.

And so it really was a condensed competition in those days.

And you actually had to do pretty badly not to qualify for the Super 8.

So two out of the three sides in each group would go through to the Super 8 phase.

when the tournament would then move into a different gear.

Top two teams in the Super 8s through to the semi-finals.

And that's a sort of more familiar passage, if you like, from the more modern editions of the competition.

So just briefly, the groups as they were back then.

England, India, Afghanistan.

Australia West Indies and Ireland Sri Lanka South Africa Zimbabwe and then Pakistan New Zealand and Bangladesh and so Prakash back in those days it really was fast and furious it was it

And only three venues were used as well.

The Prema Dasa in Colombo, Pala Kelly and the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium in Hambantota, which with a capacity of 35,000.

I'm not sure how often it's used these days, but along with a major international airport.