No T20 World Cup this year

The International Cricket Council confirmed the postponement of the T20 World Cup 2020 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, after much deliberation during its board meeting via video-conferencing on Monday.

The ICC had been exploring all-possible ‘contingency’ options for the tournament before finally deciding to call it off for this year. Six editions of the T20 World Cup have been played so far with the last one being held in India in 2016 in which West Indies were crowned champions.

The 2020 edition of the T20 World Cup, which was scheduled to be held between October 18 and November 15, will now be played in 2022 in Australia while India have the hosting rights of the tournament in 2021.

Cricket Australia had already expressed its inability to host the T20 World Cup amid a second surge of Covid-19 cases in the state of Victoria.

The postponement, however, is a big relief for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as the Indian cricket board can finally start planning for the Indian Premier League 2020.

IPL’s 13th edition this year was suspended until further notice after it missed the April-May deadline due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The BCCI has since been eyeing a shortened window of 5 to 6 weeks between September and early November to host the cash-rich event but they had to wait for ICC’s decision before they could start preparing a roadmap for the IPL.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had told India Today earlier this month that the BCCI are looking to not end 2020 without an IPL.

The Indian board has more or less zeroed in on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as IPL hosts for 2020 due to the rising cases of coronavirus in India.

UAE, which had hosted the first leg of IPL 2014, was also zeroed in as the frontrunner as the board expects the quarantine period in the wake of the pandemic to come down to a day or so during the window targetted for the IPL.