The ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2009 begins on June 5 with a grand opening ceremony at Lord’s. The Marylebone Cricket Club will host the ceremony, which will be a prelude to the exciting days of cricket to come. The ceremony is scheduled to start at 15:30 hrs GMT, 16:30 hrs local time, and 21:00 hrs IST. 

England and Wales Cricket Board is organizing this ceremony, after which England will take on Netherlands in the opening encounter at Lord’s. Lord’s will host a number of matches, including the finals of men’s and women’s T20 World Cup matches.

The tickets are sold out for the opening ceremony and the England-Netherlands match. The tickets for the other matches of the tournament are almost sold out. One can expect good crowd for the matches as the shortest version of the game has caught on well with the English crowd.

The ceremony would last for about 45 minutes or so. English singer Alesha Dixon is slated to give a musical performance. There will be a tight security for the ceremony and subsequent matches of the two-week tournament. England is taking no chances as far as security is concerned, especially after the members of the Sri Lankan cricket team were attacked by terrorists in Pakistan. There has been a generous expenditure on security as the country does not want a repetition of the Lahore attack.