CHENNAI: Fingers crossed for T20 World Cup in Australia from October 18 to November 15, ICC is confident of pulling things off on the organisation front, waiting to see what governments of the participating nations decide in the next couple of months.
The competition is going to be discussed during a tele-conference of ICC’s Board of Directors later this month, and also at the world body’s annual conference in July. ICC hopes the Australian and other governments will have some travel policies in place by then, which will help give a clearer picture about the event’s future.
ICC is less worried about logistics. The tournament will be held at seven venues. ICC’s local organising committee has been working at some of these places for nearly a year now, starting with the women’s T20 World Cup (in February and March). They are confident that a lot of things are already in place.
Men’s World Cup matches are in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart and Geelong. Out of these cities, the first three hosted games during the women’s World Cup. With a base in place, ICC can get things ready on short notice. It is even prepared for a closed-door event.
“For things like accreditation, ticketing, video recording and broadcast, infrastructure is there,” said an official following developments. “ICC had a mechanism to get these things done for the women’s event. Responsibilities are divided. People know who does what and how. Things like transport and catering can only be arranged closer to the event. For the rest, not much has to be done.”
With situation improving Down Under and New Zealand declaring itself virus-free, chances are high that Australia too will be in a better position in two months. However, that is not ICC’s prime worry. It is worried more about the decisions to be taken by these governments.
Even if restrictions are relaxed, nothing can be said of travel policies. It’s possible that certain governments will have travel restrictions in place for a longer period. ICC will take a call only after taking stock of that.
Among other things, the tele-conference of Board of Directors will try to assess how the countries are placed in terms of travelling. If a couple of big teams say they cannot travel to Australia due to restrictions imposed by their governments, then ICC will have to think whether to hold the World Cup without these countries or push it back to 2022. Whatever it is, calling it off is an unlikely option before July-August.