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The International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup is set to complete its 10th iteration when India and Sri Lanka host the tournament between February 7 and March 8.

Three nations, including defending champions India, have won the title twice, and many more will eye the trophy with the tournament expanded to 20 teams since 2024.

How did the T20 World Cup begin, and who were its biggest stars in the past two decades? Here’s a look back at the tournament:

2007: Sparks fly as India-Pakistan meet twice

Host: South Africa
Teams: 12
Final: India vs Pakistan
Winner: India – by five runs
Player of the tournament: Shahid Afridi

It was a tournament of many firsts – 33 T20 international (T20I) player debuts, dozens of individual and team records, and the world’s first T20 champion.

The World Cup got off to a spectacular start when Chris Gayle scored the first T20I century with his 57-ball 117 in the opening match against South Africa.

A few days later, Yuvraj Singh famously hit England fast bowler Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over and in the process, set a new record for the fastest T20I half-century (50 off 12 balls).

India and Pakistan grabbed the headlines in two separate encounters. The rivals were locked in a tied match in the Super 8 stage, resulting in a first-ever T20I bowl-out. Pakistan failed to hit the stumps in three attempts while India struck every time.

A final for the ages, then set alight the cricketing world: India vs Pakistan, last-over finish.

Pakistan needed 13 before Misbah ul Haq brought the equation down to six off four. And then – Pakistan fans look away now – Misbah scooped Joginder Sharma to S Sreesanth at fine leg to set off wild Indian celebrations. Misbah, shocked and heartbroken, remained on his haunches and India were crowned the first T20 world champions.

2009: The Home of Cricket embraces T20

Host: England
Teams: 12
Final: Pakistan vs Sri Lanka
Winner: Pakistan – by eight wickets
Player of the tournament: Tillakaratne Dilshan

England’s home T20 World Cup got off to the worst possible start when they lost to the so-called minnows, the Netherlands, at Lord’s – the ground known as the “Home of Cricket”. The hosts still qualified for the Super 8s, but that is where their campaign ended, along with that of holders India and Australia, following two heavy losses.

Pakistan recovered from a typically slow start to find themselves in the semifinals, where Shahid Afridi starred against a South Africa left rueing another last-four stutter.

Tillakaratne Dilshan’s unbeaten 96 off 57 helped Sri Lanka romp to their semi with the West Indies by 57 runs.

The tournament was held a few months after the horrific armed attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team’s bus while on tour in Lahore, Pakistan. The pre-final anthems were especially poignant.

Teenage fast bowler Mohammad Amir removed Dilshan for a duck to set off a batting collapse that even Kumar Sangakkara’s 52-ball 64 could not resuscitate.

Afridi duly obliged in the chase with another half-century before posing at the end in his trademark star-man celebration.

2010: England win first-ever men’s World Cup

Host: West Indies
Teams: 12
Final: Australia vs England
Winner: England – by seven wickets
Player of the tournament: Kevin Pietersen

Scheduling changes meant that the West Indies hosted the 2010 tournament less than a year after the previous one.

Afghanistan made their mark with an impressive debut amidst the continuing war at home.

Australia found their typically unforgiving World Cup form on their way to the final. Needing 48 runs in the last three overs, Michael Hussey encapsulated the never-say-die Aussie attitude by dispatching Pakistan’s bowlers – Saeed Ajmal in particular – for four sixes and two fours.

England’s explosive batting lineup powered its way to the nation’s first World Cup, which Paul Collingwood, Kevin Pietersen and co lifted after a seven-wicket win in Barbados.

2012: West Indies spoil Sri Lanka’s house party

Host: Sri Lanka
Teams: 12
Final: Sri Lanka vs West Indies
Winner: West Indies – by 36 runs
Player of the tournament: Shane Watson

When the T20 World Cup finally arrived in South Asia, India – once again – fell short, despite beating archrivals Pakistan by eight wickets in the Super 8s.

Instead, Pakistan were the team to progress on net run rate to face Sri Lanka in the semis.

The hosts’ spin wizards Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath proved too wily for Pakistan as the Lankan Lions roared into a home final.

They were joined by the big-hitting West Indies, who beat Australia by 74 runs after amassing 205 – the tournament’s joint-highest total – thanks to Gayle’s 41-ball 75.

In the final, Marlon Samuels capped an incredible year by scoring an unbeaten 78 runs while wickets fell all around him. The below-par target of 137 was enough as Sunil Narine spun a web to dismiss the hosts for 101 in 18.4 overs.

The Caribbean side’s win was termed the rebirth of West Indian cricket as Gayle and co danced away to the Korean pop hit, Gangnam Style.

2014: Veterans shine as new kids added to the block

Host: Bangladesh
Teams: 16
Final: India vs Sri Lanka
Winner: Sri Lanka – by six wickets
Player of the tournament: Virat Kohli

Hong Kong, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates made their T20 World Cup debuts as the tournament was expanded to 16 teams.

The opening match saw the Bengal Tigers bag a nine-wicket win over the hapless Afghanistan, but the hosts then lost to Hong Kong in one of the tournament’s biggest upsets.

In the first semifinal, Sri Lanka undid two years of hurt by dethroning the West Indies with a 27-run win. A few hours later, Kohli showed his supremacy with the bat as his 44-ball 72 overcame a strong South African bowling lineup.

Kohli’s blistering form helped India set a target of 131, but Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene – the leaders of Sri Lanka’s golden generation, who had been on the losing end of the 50-over World Cup final against India three years earlier – set things right.

Kohli’s 319 aggregate runs remain a T20 World Cup record.

2016: Kohli’s World Cup but West Indies win it

Host: India
Teams: 16
Final: England vs West Indies
Winner: West Indies – by four wickets
Player of the tournament: Virat Kohli

India hosted the T20 World Cup for the first time, and with a squad packed with IPL stars, they were the outright favourites.

To the delight of a packed Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata, Kohli powered India in their group to their 11th consecutive win against Pakistan in an ICC World Cup.

Kohli hit a 47-ball 89 to set a target of 193 in the semifinals, but could do little as Lendl Simmons broke more than a billion Indian hearts to send the West Indies through.

The West Indies were reeling late in their chase in the final as England seemed to have done enough, despite a sub-par score of 155. Enter Carlos Brathwaite – a relative unknown – who was left facing the final over from Ben Stokes. Nineteen needed off six balls. Six, six, six, six. Game over! The swashbuckling end left Stokes in tears and prompted West Indies legend Ian Bishop to scream on television: “Carlos Brathwaite, remember the name!”

2021: Pakistan tamed by Australia, again

Host: United Arab Emirates and Oman
Teams: 16
Final: Australia vs New Zealand
Winner: Australia – by eight wickets
Player of the tournament: David Warner

The first ICC World Cup in the post-pandemic era was moved to the Gulf region due to COVID-19-related restrictions in the original host nation, India.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam and his deputy Mohammad Rizwan were in scintillating form in the country’s first victory against India in an ICC World Cup in 13 attempts. It was also India’s first 10-wicket loss in the T20Is.

Pakistan won all five Super 12 matches to progress to the semis, while New Zealand beat India to grab the fourth semifinal spot.

The Kiwis one-upped England in the first semifinal thanks to Daryl Mitchell’s 47-ball 72.

In the other semifinal, Rizwan had seemingly led Pakistan to a competitive score, and Shadab Khan’s leg spin had Australia on the ropes, but some poor fielding, combined with destructive hitting by Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade, took the Aussies through.

Kane Williamson’s 48-ball 85 helped New Zealand set a target of 173 in the final, only for Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh to blow it away with seven balls to spare.

2022: Stokes flips the script in Australia

Host: Australia
Teams: 16
Final: England vs Pakistan
Winner: England – by five wickets
Player of the tournament: Sam Curran

Namibia beat Sri Lanka in the first group match to produce one of the tournament’s biggest shocks. The second one came the next day, when Scotland beat two-time champions West Indies, who also lost to Ireland and were removed in the first round.

Hosts and holders Australia were effectively washed out of the Super 12s by the weather. India did set things right by beating Pakistan in an epic chase, led by who else but Kohli, leaving the Pakistanis to scrape through to the semis by beating a gutsy Zimbabwe.

Pakistan romped to a seven-wicket win against New Zealand in the semifinal to draw comparisons with their triumphant run at the 1992 World Cup.

The next logical step would be to meet England in the final, and the 2010 champions duly obliged by blowing away India. Returning prodigal son Alex Hales struck an unbeaten match-winning 56 in a 10-wicket victory.

The 1992 comparisons remained on course as Pakistan set a middling target in front of a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground, before Haris Rauf gave them a good start with the ball. Stokes flipped the history books, however, to break Pakistani hearts and take England to their second T20 title.

2024: India’s party in the USA and West Indies

Host: USA and West Indies
Teams: 20
Final: India vs South Africa
Winner: India – by seven runs
Player of the tournament: Jasprit Bumrah

This was the year the T20 World Cup went big. Not only did the ICC, for the first time in 17 years and nine editions, expand the T20 World Cup to include 20 teams, but it also decided to take the game to the land of baseball.

New York City played host to India vs Pakistan as cricket finally came home for the South Asian diaspora in the US.

The biggest shock of the tournament, and arguably the biggest in its history, came in the first week when USA defeated Pakistan in their group-stage match. Scores were tied at the end of the second innings, and the host nation recorded one for the history books when they beat the South Asian giants in the Super Over.

Afghanistan were the other big story, as they finally beat Australia and qualified for the semifinals of the World Cup, sparking wild celebrations back home.

India, whose biggest stars were on their way out of the T20 format, remained undefeated and broke South African hearts by pulling off a stunning comeback win in the final. And so, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli walked away as champions.

Tehran, Iran – Iranian authorities have launched an online portal for people to report the names of loved ones missing from a government list of thousands killed during recent nationwide protests, as calls for accountability grow.

Authorities say 3,117 people were killed during the anti-establishment protests that began in late December, rejecting statements by the United Nations and international human rights organisations that state forces were behind the killings, which were mostly carried out on January 8 and 9.

The United States-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says it has verified 6,872 deaths and is investigating more than 11,000 other cases. A UN special rapporteur has said the death toll may be higher than 20,000 as information trickles out despite heavy internet filtering by the state.

On Sunday, the government of President Masoud Pezeshkian released the names of 2,986 Iranians confirmed to have been killed during the protests. It said the remaining 131 have not been identified, so a complementary list will be forthcoming at an undisclosed time.

The list includes the full names of those killed, the first name of their father, and the last six digits of their 10-digit national identification number. It does not elaborate where, when, how or by whom they were killed, and avoids any further classification, such as distinguishing between protesters and heavily armed state forces.

Since the release of the list, many Iranians have taken to social media to report the omission of names of people confirmed by their families and friends to have been killed during the protests. The register also contained a number of repetitive entries, with matching names and national identification codes.

Late on Tuesday, the government announced a website where people could report the names of loved ones missing from the list. But it was unclear when any potential update would be forthcoming to add names and clarify errors and ambiguities.

People were also urged to report any violations, including being demanded money by authorities to receive the bodies of their loved ones, and any refusal to provide lifesaving medical care to wounded protesters.

The government has consistently rejected all reports of misconduct by state forces, including raids on hospitals and the arrests of medical personnel for assisting protesters.

It has also announced an internal fact-finding mission – as it rejects a UN mandate on the issue – but has provided no details, including who the members are or when findings may be published.

In an apparent attempt to appease families of the victims and the grieving public, a government statement on Sunday said “all of the victims of the recent incidents and unrest were the children of this land and no bereaved person must be abandoned in silence and helplessness”.

However, the messaging was in stark contrast with daily comments from the political, military and judicial authorities, including Pezeshkian, stressing that “terrorists” were behind the “riots”, which they claim were armed and funded by the United States and Israel.

Moreover, in late January, Iran’s Martyrs Foundation said 2,427 of those killed were “innocent”, including civilians and security forces. The figure suggested that the remaining 690 killed may have been classified as the “terrorists” referenced by state officials, but there has been no further clarity on that.

The government’s list of names was also published in full and in small text on the front pages of two newspapers, with the Payam-e Ma morning daily using the headline, “the deceased”, for the victims.

Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani held a news conference on Tuesday, where she was met with a rebuke from a journalist, clips of which are being widely shared online.

Parisa Hashemi, a journalist with Ham-Mihan newspaper – which is currently under legal prosecution for reporting on the protests – reminded the spokesperson that Iran is suffering from corruption, poverty, energy and water crises, chronic air pollution and much more.

“Now we hear that the ‘enemy’ sabotaged protests in our country, created rivers of blood, and committed a mass killing. There is no doubt that those who fired at our youth, children, women and men are enemies of this land,” she said, pointing out that not a single official has resigned in the aftermath.

“If this had happened in any other country, its officials would either die from the shame or kill themselves out of honour,” Hashemi said.

In response, Mohajerani smiled and said the journalist was posing a statement rather than a question and repeated a line about “hope” being crucial for any society.

The official IRNA news agency did not include the three-minute part of the journalist’s comments when releasing the recorded footage of the news conference on its website.

Meanwhile, renowned actress Elnaz Shakerdoost on Monday announced in a handwritten statement appearing to be stained in blood that she is quitting Iranian cinema due to the protest killings.

“I will never again play any role in this soil that smells of blood. This is my main role,” she wrote, also saying she is boycotting the Fajr International Film Festival.

The state-run festival opened this week amid boycotts from artists and the public, but some of the directors and actors who took part lashed out at those who were absent.

Dhaka, Bangladesh – As Rubel Chaklader drove his autorickshaw through the busy Dhaka traffic in late January, he sounded more resigned than angry.

The 50-year-old said that Bangladeshis had squandered what he saw as a rare opening after an uprising in August 2024 toppled longtime leader Sheikh Hasina, ending her 15-year rule marked by allegations of authoritarianism, crackdown on opponents and widespread rights abuses.

Three days after the student-led protests forced Hasina to resign, Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s only Nobel laureate, took over as the country’s interim leader, tasked with stabilising a fractured country after one of its bloodiest upheavals that killed more than 1,400 people.

Yunus, now 85, framed his mandate narrowly but ambitiously: restore a credible electoral process, and build consensus around reforms aimed at preventing a return to authoritarian rule by balancing power among different state institutions.

And that’s where Chaklader thinks the various vested interest groups – officials inside the administration and polarised political parties – failed to support Yunus enough to deliver more substantial changes during his 18 months of rule as an interim leader.

“We missed the opportunity,” Chaklader told Al Jazeera. “We didn’t let Dr Yunus work properly. Who didn’t come to the streets with unreasonable demands from him? This country will never be good. People gave their lives in July for nothing.”

His weary assessment came as Yunus prepares to leave office after presiding over arguably the country’s first free and fair elections in more than a decade, closing one of the most unusual political transitions in the country’s history.

As Bangladesh heads towards the February 12 polls, spirited debates over Yunus’s legacy are already dividing people who once placed their hopes on him.

The key question at the heart of those debates: was Yunus the steady hand who kept a fragile state from breaking, or a leader who fell short on delivering the structural change demanded by the movement that powered the 2024 uprising?

‘Acceptable to everyone’

For the student leaders who spearheaded the uprising, Yunus’s global stature as an eminent economist as well as his domestic reputation as a civil society leader mattered, particularly as Bangladesh, a garment exports powerhouse, sought to reassure the world of avoiding an economic freefall.

“At that moment, we needed someone acceptable to everyone,” said Nahid Islam, a prominent student leader who now heads the National Citizen Party (NCP), a new political platform formed by former student protest leaders. The NCP is now in alliance with Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, in next week’s election.

“When we discussed alternatives, we didn’t find anyone other than Yunus,” he added.

Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan, another student leader who contacted Yunus days before Hasina’s fall, said their calculation was similar: addressing institutional collapse and global uncertainty required someone with moral authority.

Bhuiyan said Yunus’s appointment was not unanimously welcomed within state institutions, and cited reservations within the military that he claimed were voiced during discussions among student leaders and officials at the time. Al Jazeera cannot independently verify this claim. The military has not publicly detailed its internal deliberations around Yunus’s appointment, and General Waker-Uz-Zaman, the army chief appointed by Hasina, remained in his post under the interim government.

Yunus is also reported to have initially hesitated, insisting he was “not a political person”. But as protests escalated and deaths mounted, he stepped in, in “a moment of obligation”, as political scientist Ali Riaz puts it.

“He felt a commitment to step forward,” said Riaz, who was handpicked by Yunus to head a committee on constitutional reforms – a key demand of the 2024 uprising.

But 18 months later, a sense of disappointment – and missed opportunity – hangs over even those who backed Yunus.

“We wanted a national unity government,” Bhuiyan added. “That wasn’t possible. Still, we expected a rigorous overhaul of the state.”

Push for justice

To be sure, Yunus presided over one of the most ambitious and contested reform drives attempted by any interim government in Bangladesh’s history. In the absence of an elected parliament, his administration relied on experts to diagnose the failures of governance, document the abuses of power and propose structural fixes before holding a general election.

Supporters saw it as long overdue truth-telling. Critics saw an unelected government trying to do too much, too quickly.

Yunus’s administration set up multiple reform and inquiry commissions covering elections, constitution, judiciary, police, as well as the various rights abuses carried out under Hasina’s administration, including arrests of critics, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

The judiciary, which during Hasina’s rule was also accused of systemic repression, assumed a more independent role and ordered the trial of several politicians, army generals, police officers and other security officials who were implicated in past abuses. Late last year, Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity and convicted in other cases, while several other Hasina-linked officials also faced the wrath of the law.

Among Yunus’s most sensitive initiatives was confronting the issue of enforced disappearances and secret detentions under Hasina’s watch between 2009 and 2024.

The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, which he formed, documented 1,913 complaints, verified 1,569 cases, and identified 287 victims as either missing or dead, with most of those cases to security agencies, including the police, the Rapid Action Battalion, a notorious paramilitary sanctioned by the United States and the military intelligence.

Mubashar Hasan, an adjunct fellow at Western Sydney University, who was himself abducted in Dhaka in November 2017 and returned home 44 days later after being left blindfolded on a highway, called the commission Yunus’s “most consequential intervention”.

“It showed that crimes under Sheikh Hasina were systematic,” Hasan said.

He credited Yunus with acknowledging Aynaghor or “house of mirrors” – as Hasina-era clandestine detention sites were called – and visiting suspected locations, despite resistance within the security establishment.

But Hasan also felt the commission could have a broader mandate, comparing it with a truth and reconciliation commission in post-dictatorship Argentina. “It [Bangladesh commission] was a success,” he said, “but it could have been a bigger one.”

The interim government under Yunus also engaged with the United Nations Human Rights Office, which confirmed that Bangladeshi security forces used excessive force during the July 2024 uprising, lending international weight to claims of serious violations.

Political analyst Dilara Choudhury thinks bureaucratic reforms were another area where expectations did not match the outcome during Yunus’s rule.

“There was an expectation that Yunus would confront an entrenched bureaucracy that routinely exercises power over citizens,” she told Al Jazeera. “But he failed to do so, constrained by structural resistance and the limits of an unelected mandate.”

Referendum on reforms

Yunus is using the February 12 vote to attempt something unprecedented in Bangladesh’s history: forging political consensus around key recommendations and putting them directly to voters through a nationwide referendum alongside the general election.

Yunus’s supporters argue that if the next government is to dismantle systems that enabled repression during Hasina’s abuse of power – from politicised courtrooms to unaccountable security forces – then the reforms require public consent.

If voters approve the charter, the next parliament will decide whether those reforms are to be implemented. If not, the reform initiatives may be shelved.

For analysts, that uncertainty defines Yunus’s legacy.

“He provided leadership at a moment when Bangladesh could have fallen apart,” said Hasan, the Sydney-based political analyst. “History will judge what survives after he leaves.”

Choudhury offered a different perspective. “Whether the initiatives he took ultimately succeed or fail is not the only measure,” she said. “He will remain a permanent figure in the nation’s history.”

Bangladesh’s political parties, however, remain divided on Yunus’s legacy as they seek to form an elected government later this month.

The frontrunner Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which had been demanding swift elections since Hasina’s fall, did not approve of an unelected government in command. On the other hand, the NCP and its ally, the Jamaat-e-Islami, favoured deeper reforms before an election was held.

BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed acknowledged Yunus’s role in stabilising the country, but questioned how far an unelected government should have gone.

“There was a tendency to try to do everything within this short time,” Salahuddin told Al Jazeera. “Some of these issues could have been addressed later through parliament once an elected government was in place.”

He said law and order had been “largely under control, though not to expectations”, while economic stability remained fragile, with foreign investments largely stalled during the interim period.

Economists say that while macro indicators stabilised somewhat under Yunus, household-level distress persisted – with unemployment, stagnant wages and sluggish investment keeping private sector confidence low and limiting the government’s capacity to generate growth and jobs.

Still, the BNP leader described Yunus’s decision to hold elections on February 12 as a “major achievement”, adding: “How much of what [reform agenda] he has initiated will be accepted or implemented by the next parliament remains an open question.”

The Jamaat-e-Islami, which supported Yunus’s appointment after Hasina’s fall, struck a similar note.

“He started the reform process and made significant progress,” Jamaat leader Abdul Halim said. “But reforms need time. This government’s achievements should be seen as a collective effort by all political forces.”

‘A country of the blind’

Among the student leaders who propped up Yunus, assessments blend respect with a degree of disappointment.

Islam, who also served as the acting head of the information ministry in the Yunus cabinet before forming the NCP a year ago, said Yunus’s intent was clear but political realities were unforgiving.

“He tried to create unity,” Islam said. “But his government was weak in political negotiations.”

Bhuiya agreed, saying Yunus succeeded internationally but struggled at home. “We needed stronger positions,” he told Al Jazeera.

For Sanjida Khan Deepti, however, Yunus will be remembered more for his government’s push for justice for the victims of the 2024 uprising. Deepti’s 17-year-old son Anas was killed by the police at the peak of the uprising in early August 2024.

Last month, a court sentenced former Dhaka police chief Habibur Rahman and others to death, while several officers received prison terms for their crackdown on the protesters.

“We gave our children’s lives in exchange for justice,” Deepti told Al Jazeera.

She insisted that Yunus should be remembered positively. “In a country of the blind, a mirror has no value,” she said. “How could one person finish so many tasks in such a short time?”

Back in the crawling traffic of Dhaka, Chaklader slowed his autorickshaw near the Bashundhara neighbourhood and turned around to share a family secret: his wife and daughter remain staunch supporters of Hasina’s banned Awami League party and he has failed in persuading them otherwise.

And that, he explains, is why he has little hope for the February 12 election.