CHENNAI: A decision on the T20 World Cup is expected at the online ICC Board meeting on Monday. Everything, including a statement from Cricket Australia (CA), points to a postponement of the event scheduled in October-November. But the ICC has kept the announcement on hold. It is believed that the decision will be made public after this meeting.
Of ICC’s 12 full members, BCCI is waiting for this the most. Postponement means a window for IPL, which was deferred in March. In all likelihood, BCCI will set the ball rolling after the announcement. UAE is tipped to stage the IPL, unless the situation in India improves dramatically. Sourav Ganguly will attend Monday’s meeting as BCCI president.
There could be a conflict in store if CA sticks to its demand of hosting the postponed T20 World Cup in 2021 and asks India to play host in 2022. India is scheduled to stage the event next year and the 50-over World Cup in 2023. A T20 World Cup in 2022 would mean two World Cups in the country in a gap of about four months.
“Staging two World Cups in four-five months is not something that we’d like. I doubt if any other board will accept that kind of a proposal. So we hope CA will understand our position and take a call on staging the T20 World Cup in 2022. And this is not a decision that we have to take right now. There is time. We hope to sort things out through discussions,” a BCCI official had said a few days ago. It’s not clear if the ICC will finalise the process of filing nominations for the post of its new chairman in this meeting. Shashank Manohar has stepped down and Singapore’s Imran Khawaja is working as interim chairman.