DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CMC) — Geelong is among several more established cricket venues named to host matches in next year’s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia.

The MCG will stage the final of the 2022 T20 World Cup.

A port city in the south-eastern state of Victoria, Geelong has been joined by Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney for the October 16 to November 13 event.

Melbourne Cricket Ground will play host to the final while Sydney Cricket Ground and Adelaide Oval will stage the semi-finals on November 9-10.

“We are looking forward to seeing the return of ICC events to Australia and are delighted to announce the seven host cities for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022,” said ICC head of events, Chris Tetley.

“Following the success of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2020 and a two-year postponement, our sights are now firmly set on planning for the 2022 event in collaboration with the LOC.

“With 12 teams already confirmed in the line-up, we eagerly await the culmination of the qualification process to see which other teams will join them.”

Hosts Australia, who captured the 2021 event last Sunday, will be joined by runners-up New Zealand in the Super 12 stage, along with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan and South Africa as automatic qualifiers.

However, two-time champions West Indies will have to play a pre-tournament qualifying tournament along with the likes of Namibia, Scotland, Sri Lanka, in order to secure one of the four available spots at the tournament.

In the build-up to the World Cup, two global qualifying tournaments will be staged by the ICC, the first in Oman next February and the second in Zimbabwe next June/July.

West Indies underperformed at the just concluded T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, losing four of their five group games to finish one from bottom of Group 1 and miss out on the semi-finals.