The ICC on Monday took the decision which was inevitable—as a fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic—of postponing the men’s 2020 T20 World Cup originally scheduled from October 18 to November 15 in Australia.
The decision was taken on the three men’s tournaments. The two T20 WCs will now be held in October-November in 2021 and October-November 2022. The 50-over men’s World Cup will be played in October-November 2023.
The two new venues of the T20 World Cups have not been announced yet. However, in the original FTP, India was to host the event in 2021 and the 50-over World Cup in 2023.
Australia had already expressed its inability to host the World Cup this year with 16 teams participating in it due to the global virus crisis. Although Australia is one of the least affected countries by COVID-19 with only 3026 active cases as of today, they have been quite vocal about the risk involved in hosting the event this year.
CA chief executive Kevin Roberts, in May, had said that it would be “very high risk” to host the event. The same fear was echoed by CA chairman Earl Eddings in June. Australia is wary to open its borders as the pandemic is surging in most places across the world.
It is indeed very difficult to create a bio-secure bubble for 16 teams as many participating nations like India, Pakistan and South Africa are grappling with the pandemic already.
The ICC has met on several occasions since April to decide the fate of the T20 World Cup in Australia and eventually took this decision on Monday. Today’s Board meeting was attended by all the directors including BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and the global body’s interim chairman Imran Khawaja.
Image courtesy: Jagran Josh
