CHENNAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) can only express concern over the game taking place or scheduled to take place in various countries at the time of coronavirus. The India-South Africa ODI series was called off on Friday, but Australia is hosting New Zealand.
The ICC can’t intervene because it’s up to the boards concerned to decide whether bilateral cricket should go ahead, although it has put on hold a World Cup qualifying tournament in USA involving its associate nations.
The cricket community was late compared to other sports to react to this reality. England called off their tour of Sri Lanka on Friday. But for rain, the first ODI between India and South Africa would have taken place in Dharamsala on Thursday.
Ireland played against Afghanistan in Noida till March 10, while Bangladesh hosted Zimbabwe till March 11. Around the same time and earlier, events in other disciplines were getting cancelled or postponed the world over.
That’s because the respective boards wanted these matches to go ahead. Australia, for example, are sticking to plans to complete the last two ODIs against New Zealand in Sydney (March 15) and Hobart (March 20). As of now, these matches will be played before empty stands.
“The ICC is fully supportive of the decisions taken by members with the guidance of their relevant authorities. It is not for the ICC to offer a directive around bilateral cricket. Members must take that decision with regards to their own territory,” an ICC source told this daily, when asked if the world body can step in and suspend cricketing activities around the world.
When it came to its own tournament, the ICC has postponed matches of the Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 tournament, which were scheduled to be held in Lauderhill, USA, from April 1.
It’s a qualifying tournament for the ICC’s associate nations. The seven participants in the competition are Oman, USA, Scotland, Namibia, UAE, Nepal and Papua New Guinea.