The Coronavirus pandemic is set to make the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 its next big victim, with the International Cricket Council reportedly set to postpone the event to next year. Scheduled to take place in October-November in Australia, the T20 World Cup’s fate has been under discussion for long and now an official announcement is imminent.
An ICC board meeting has been scheduled to take place on May 28 post which an official announcement of the T20 World Cup’s future could be made. However, the decision to push the mega event to next year has already been made.
As far as the options for the next year are concerned, there are three ways in which the showpiece event could be held in 2021.
The logistical headache of hosting a 16-team tournament is too much for Cricket Australia as of now and hence the decision to postpone the T20 World Cup has been made.
“There are logistics and hospitality to take care of. If the tournament would’ve happened, it’d have been played to empty stands and that doesn’t make sense for Australia because they lose out on massive gate revenue. Right now, what they’ll be getting out of the tournament is the hosting and participation fee (latter is applicable to all participating boards).
The event could be held early next year but Cricket Australia is reportedly not too keen on the idea considering the Indian Premier League (IPL) will start right after. To have as many T20 matches for consecutive 3-4 months could lead to overkill. The dates also coincide with England’s tour of England which is a big headache.
The idea of Cricket Australia hosting the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup and India taking the rights for the 2022 edition has also surfaced but it has been reported that the BCCI is not too keen on the idea of this sort of a switch.
Touted as the most feasible decision, this could see the 2020 edition being postponed by 2 years while Australia would retain the hosting rights.
In the ICC meet this month, while a decision on the T20 World Cup 2020 will be officially announced, the dates for the election of ICC chairman for the next term will also be announced.
