The ICC 2020 T20 World Cup which was slated to be held in Australia later this year, is all set to be postponed as the International Cricket Council (ICC) gears to meet with National Cricket Boards on 28th May and take a major decision with regard to staging the flagship T20 event in Australia.
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. As per a report in the Times of India, however, the decision to push the mega event to next year has already been made. As per sources placed closed to this development, ICC ‘s video conference over discussion on the postponement of T20 World Cup is set to take place tomorrow. It will start around 12 Noon (Dubai Time ) which corresponds to 1.30 PM (Indian Time).
Cricket Australia, the national cricket board of Australia, which also serves as the organising committee has almost resigned on the prospect of hosting the premier event, scheduled to take place in Oct-Nov later this year. With the postponement of the World Cup almost a certainty, the options of hosting for the event could either be in 2021 or 2022.
As per TOI sources, 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). They can earn that money whenever the tournament is held next, possibly some gate revenue too,” sources tracking developments were quoted as saying by the newspaper.
With Australia’s international borders closed till mid-September, incoming passengers requiring to undergo two-week quarantine and plenty more logistical issues facing ICC and Cricket Australia, the situation is not in favour of a 16-team tournament.
To explore the possibility of hosting the World T20 in 2021, Cricket Australia can only hope that the BCCI gives them an opportunity as it is originally slated to be held in India for that year.
