CHENNAI: The Apex Council of the BCCI at its meeting on July 17 will discuss the Future Tours Programme (FTP) for the men's and women's teams. One expects changes in it because of the pandemic. It is understood that a decision on the women's tour of England in late August will also be taken as standard operating procedures to resume cricket are being finalised.
The meeting holds significance since there are plenty of important decisions to be taken. Apart from the FTP, there are indications that A team engagements will be put on hold for the time being to save cost.
Sources indicated that since there is no clarity over IPL at the moment, the BCCI is looking at cost cutting measures, unwilling to touch its reserves. This could affect India's A team set-up which has been successful of late.
While the standard operating procedures (SOP) for resuming activities in a post COVID-19 world is ready, it needs formal approval, which one understands will be given during the meeting. Also, with the SOP in hand, the BCCI will be able to take a call on domestic cricket.
As reported by this newspaper earlier, chances of age-group tournaments being affected are high. Though BCCI president Sourav Ganguly recently said that resuming domestic cricket until the situation improves will be difficult, the board will look at other options before taking a call. Also on the agenda is BCCI's decision to inform the ICC that the T20 World Cup scheduled to be hosted by India in 2021 should go ahead as per plans.
With this year's T20 World Cup scheduled in Australia in October-November set to be postponed, Cricket Australia has expressed interest to host it next year. The BCCI is unwilling to give up the event it is supposed to host in 2021 and wait until 2022.
"India has the 2023 50-over World Cup to host as well. So if the ICC wants to push next year's T20 WC in India to 2022, then there will be successive global events in India in 2022 and 2023. We don't want back-to-back events. Moreover, the board also needs to decide the tax exemption impasse," sources told this newspaper.
Meanwhile, if the ICC formally decides to postpone the T20 World Cup, the BCCI might call for an informal IPL Governing Council meeting, which will put forth its recommendations before the Apex Council.