Cricket ventures into uncharted territory on Sunday morning (Bangladesh time 6:30am) as the first ever major tournament to be staged in the United States gets under way in Texas with the opening game of the T20 World Cup.

A month-long festival of the fastest and most explosive form of the sport -- which is being shared between venues in Texas, Florida, New York and the Caribbean -- begins with the US taking on Canada at the Grand Prairie Stadium on the outskirts of Dallas.

It marks the opening skirmish of the first ever major International Cricket Council (ICC) event to be held in part in the United States.

While the bulk of the tournament will be played out in the Caribbean, 16 group stage games in the 20-team tournament will be played on American soil, including the highlight of the group stage -- a clash between India and Pakistan.

That match is due to be played at a 34,000-capacity temporary venue in Long Island, New York on June 9.

The rest of the tournament will be held in the West Indies, including the Super Eight stage, the semfinals and the final, which will be played at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados.

The ICC sees the tournament as a launch pad towards the sport's return to the Olympics for Los Angeles 2028, when the T20 format will be used.

Major League Cricket, a T20 tournament, was launched last year and also stands to benefit from any growth in interest in the big-hitting, spectacular shortest form.

The ICC also sees the T20 format as the perfect vehicle for growing the game and this year's edition will feature three T20 World Cup debutants in the USA, Canada and Uganda.

Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Oman are among the other nations who are relatively new to the big stage and who will be looking to make their mark and grab some attention with an upset win.

With the teams drawn in four groups of five teams, with just the top two advancing, none of the smaller nations are expected to progress beyond the group stage and there is a danger the pool stage could mainly be a 'weeding out' process.