International Cricket Council finally postpones T20 World Cup due to Covid-19

MUMBAI: Ending months of suspense, the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced postponement of the upcoming men’s T20 World Cup, which was scheduled to kick off on October 18th in Australia.
The decision gives the Indian cricket board a clear window for the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which was also deferred due the Covid-19 pandemic.

The decision was taken during the board meeting of the ICC Business Corporation (IBC), the commercial subsidiary of ICC.

The ICC also announced windows for the next three ICC men’s events, in order to bring clarity to the calendar and give the sport the best possible opportunity over the next three years to recover from the disruption caused by Covid-19, it said in a statement.

ICC will conduct the Men's T20 World Cup in 2021, 2022 and 2023 during the months of October and November. While the host for 2021 and 2022 are not announced yet, the 2023 World Cup will be held in India, ICC said.

Originally, the T20 World Cup 2021 was slated to be held in India.

ICC said that it will continue to monitor the rapidly changing situation and assess all the information available in order to make a considered decision on future hosts to ensure the sport is able to stage safe and successful global events in 2021 and 2022.

"We have undertaken a comprehensive and complex contingency planning exercise and through this process, our number one priority has been to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in the sport," said Manu Sawhney, CEO, ICC.

He added that the decision to postpone the ICC Men's T20 World Cup was taken after careful consideration of all of the options available to the council and it gives ICC the best possible opportunity of delivering two safe and successful T20 World Cups for fans around the world.

“Our members now have the clarity they need around event windows to enable them to reschedule lost bilateral and domestic cricket,” Sawhney added.

ET had reported on April 1 that the BCCI is not cancelling the 13th edition of the IPL and is weighing various options, including deferment to September or October. A source had then said that the board was of the view that ICC will have to defer the World Cup, and the Asia Cup could also get cancelled, giving BCCI a window of two-three months for IPL.