DUBAI : This year’s Twenty20 World Cup became a high-profile casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic on Monday after the sport’s governing International Cricket Council (ICC) postponed the tournament scheduled in October-November.
The ICC has been exploring contingency plans since hosts Cricket Australia (CA) acknowledged the logistical challenges involved in staging a 16-team tournament amid travel and other restrictions this year.
Officials said they now hoped to stage the tournament from October to November 2021.
“At today’s meeting ... windows for the next three ICC men’s events were also agreed to bring clarity to the calendar and give the sport the best possible opportunity,” the ICC said in a statement after a meeting of its commercial subsidiary IBC.
Accordingly, there will be back-to-back men’s T20 World Cups in 2021 (with the final set to be staged on Nov 14) and 2022 (final on Nov 13) with the 2023 50-over World Cup in India pushed back until October-November of that year with the final slated for Nov 26.
“The decision ... 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,” ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney said in a statement.
In the original calendar, India was scheduled to host the 2021 edition of the Twenty20 World Cup.
The ICC did not specify the hosting order and a spokesman said the governing body was yet to finalise, between India and Australia, who will host which edition.
The powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has resented a late call on the fate of this year’s World Cup, saying the uncertainty created a scheduling headache for the cricket boards already bruised by the pandemic’s financial impact.
The BCCI has also been open about its plans to stage its delayed Indian Premier League Twenty20 competition in the now-vacant October-November slot.
“Our members now have the clarity they need around event windows to enable them to reschedule lost bilateral and domestic cricket,” Sawhney said.
The governing body also moved the 2023 ODI World Cup in India to an October-November window from its original February-March slot.
“Moving the World Cup to a later window ... gives us a better chance of maintaining the integrity of the qualification process,” Sawhney added.
“This additional time will be used to reschedule games that might be lost because of the pandemic ensuring qualification can be decided on the field of play.”
The ICC, in the meantime, would also continue to evaluate the situation ahead of the women’s World Cup 2021 in New Zealand from Feb 6.
Covid-19 has played havoc with the global sporting calendar but international cricket has resumed behind closed doors in England, with the host nation taking on the West Indies in a three-Test series.
Pakistan are also in England preparing for a series of Tests and Twenty20 matches and Australia are making preparations for a potential limited-overs tour of England.
Selectors named a preliminary squad last week but Cricket Australia said ‘several hurdles’ had to be overcome before dates could be locked in.
Australia were originally scheduled to play three One-day Internationals and three Twenty20 Internationals this month but the trip was postponed until September because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2020