Yesterday, after months of speculations the inevitable finally happened as the ICC officially postponed the T20 World Cup. The event which supposed take place in Australia later this year has been called off keeping the ongoing situation in mind because of COVID-19. It was practically impossible to create bio-secure for all 15 teams in Australia this year.
The T20 world cup will now be contested next year in October and November in Australia. The windows of the other two men’s ICC events have also been moved. The 2021 T20 World Cup which was formerly going to be held in India has been turned to 2022. The 2023 ODI World Cup has also been delayed by several months and now will be held in India during October-November.
Here are the dates for the Future ICC Men’s events:
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 will be held October-November 2021 with the final on 14 November 2021
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 will be held October -November 2022 with the final on 13 November 2022
ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 will be held in India October – November 2023 with the final on 26 November 2023
Chief Executive Officer Manu Sawhney said, “The decision to postpone the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup was taken after careful consideration of all of the options available to us and gives us 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. Moving the Men’s Cricket World Cup to a later window is a critical element of this and gives us a better chance of maintaining the integrity of the qualification process.
This additional time will be used to reschedule games that might be lost because of the pandemic ensuring qualification can be decided on the field of play”, Sawhney said in an ICC media release.
Meanwhile, the ICC also pointed out that their main priority is to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in the sport. With T20 world cup shifted to next year, it has certainly created a new window for IPL this year. Several reports have already suggested that the IPL 2020 may take place later this year in UAE behind closed doors.
