Dubai/New Delhi: The ICC postponed Monday the T20 World Cup in Australia owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a decision which has paved the way for the BCCI to organise the IPL during the October-November window.
The ICC hasn’t yet decided whether India and Australia will swap the 2021 and 2022 editions between them, both of which will be held in the October-November window.
“The International Cricket Council (ICC) today confirmed the ICC men’s T20 World Cup in Australia 2020 has been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” the ICC said in a statement.
The ICC T20 World Cup was scheduled Down Under from October 18-November 15 but Cricket Australia (CA), in the month of May itself, had intimated ICC that it would be near impossible to stage a closed-door event of this magnitude which would also require quarantine arrangement for 16 international teams.
The ICC deliberated on unspecified contingency plans for over two months before coming up with Monday’s decision.
Chief executive Manu Sawhney said: “The decision to postpone the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup was taken after careful consideration of all of the options available to us and gives us the best possible opportunity of delivering two safe and successful T20 World Cups for fans around the world.”
There has been no formal announcement but there is a possibility that BCCI might shift the Indian Premier League (IPL) to the United Arab Emirates taking India’s COVID-19 case load into account. India has recorded over 11 lakh cases so far with the death toll breaching the 27,000 mark.
The other option is having a twin-city closed door bio-secure event, which was the first preference of at least one of the stakeholders. The IPL will likely start in the last week of September and end in the second week of November.
“We were waiting for the formal announcement. Now we can at least submit our plans to the government and wait for their necessary clearances. There is scheduling, logistics, operational aspects that needs to be taken care of,” a BCCI official said.
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had earlier expressed confidence that the year wouldn’t pass without the glitzy event going ahead.