Discussions on the global cricket schedule which has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic will be on the agenda when the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) holds a meeting on April 23. Secretary Jay Shah will be the representative of BCCI in the conversations to be conducted via tele-conference.
Matches of the World Test Championship (WTC) and the Super League ODI championship along with the T20 World Cup were the major men’s tournaments scheduled for the coming months. While the ICC is expected to take a call on the T20 World Cup later, the CEC members will explore possibilities of staging matches of the other two competitions later this year.
As of now, WTC matches featuring Pakistan and West Indies in England and Australia in Bangladesh are scheduled from June to August. An England-Sri Lanka two-match series, which was scheduled to begin on March 19 in the island nation, has already been cancelled. The Super League was to start in June, but the first series between Sri Lanka and South Africa has also been cancelled. This is an important tournament, offering eight direct qualifying spots for the 2023 50-over World Cup.
Under the circumstances, the ICC’s first concern is to find out alternate dates for the matches that have been and can be cancelled. Representatives of different boards are expected to tell CEC when will they be ready to host matches, so that ICC can take a decision based on that. As of now, deferring the WTC final slated for June next year is the last option. But for it to be held on time, other matches have to be completed in the time remaining.
It has been learnt that the CEC wants to learn from the member boards when they think cricket can resume in their countries. Considering that the WTC has reached almost the halfway stage, it can’t be called off, while completing it appears to be a complicated exercise. The CEC will take stock of the situation before passing on the information to the ICC’s Board of Directors. India’s next Test series is in Australia in November. So the schedule of Virat Kohli’s men in white remains unchanged for the moment.
As far as the T20 World Cup goes, things are more complicated because the decision-making process involves governments of all the participating teams and the host nation. But since this competition is scheduled for October-November, the ICC will wait before taking a call.
