World Twenty20 2016: England to face champions Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka won the 2014 World Twenty20 in Bangladesh

England have been grouped with defending champions Sri Lanka for the 2016 World Twenty20 in India.

Eoin Morgan's men will also face South Africa, West Indies and a qualifier in the second group stage of the tournament which begins on 8 March.

Ireland and Scotland enter at the first group stage, but have been drawn in separate pools of four teams.

In the women's competition, England are in the same group as India, and Ireland will face champions Australia.

Pakistan, who had threatened to boycott the tournament over a delay in agreeing a bilateral series with India, have been placed in the same group as their bitter rivals.

Men's first round (group winners progress to second round)

• Group A - Bangladesh, Netherlands, Ireland and Oman

• Group B - Zimbabwe, Scotland, Hong Kong and Afghanistan

Men's second round (top two progress to semi-finals)

• Group 1 - Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies, England and winner group B

• Group 2 - India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and winner group A

Men's fixtures in full

Women's first round (top two progress to semi-finals)

• Group A - Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Ireland

• Group B - England, West Indies, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

A qualifying game between Zimbabwe and Hong Kong will begin the tournament in Nagpur, with both the men's and women's finals played as a double-header at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata on 3 April.

The semi-finals will also be double-headers, in New Delhi and Mumbai respectively.

The men's tournament will carry total prize money of $5.6m (£3.7m), an increase of 86% from the 2014 tournament in Bangladesh.

The women's prize money is up 122% to $400,000 (£264,000).

"The ICC World Twenty20 is an event which puts the world's best cricketers in the shortest format of the game against each other in a nation versus nation contest," said International Cricket Council chief executive Dave Richardson.

"The Twenty20 format provides the perfect vehicle by which the ICC can further globalise the game, providing international exposure and opportunity to our top Associate and Affiliate members.

"The ICC World Twenty20 event structure is designed to provide highly competitive matches throughout, with eight evenly matched sides fighting it out in the first round and the best two then getting in the mix with the top eight ranked teams in the Super 10 stage where the intensity and competition will be of the very highest level."

The World T20 has been held on five occasions since the inaugural tournament in 2007, with five different men's champions - India, Pakistan, England, West Indies and Sri Lanka.

The men's 2016 event will be last biennial tournament, with the competition switching to a four-year cycle.

The women's tournament, which began in 2009 and has been won only by England (once) and Australia (three times), is to remain biennial.