The International Cricket Council (ICC) on August 7 came out with the new schedule of global events affected due to COVID-19 pandemic. Last month, ICC had cancelled the T20 World Cup scheduled to take place in Australia owing to the pandemic.
The global body received a lot of flak from certain sections after they decided not to host the T20 blitz this year. Especially, Pakistani cricketers made sharp criticisms after the decision opened doors for BCCI to host IPL 2020. Many accused ICC of being a puppet of the Indian board.
India to host 2021 T20 World Cup
A lot has happened since then. After a week or so, ICC has released its revamped scheduled for the coming years. The 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup, which was scheduled in India, will take place as planned.
India: 2021 🇮🇳
Australia: 2022 🇦🇺CONFIRMED: The next edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup will be held in India, while Australia will stage the tournament in 2022! pic.twitter.com/lcFzo4HK7N
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) August 7, 2020
Furthermore, Australia will host the event in 2022. The format of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 will remain as it was for 2020, and all the teams who qualified for the 2020 event will now participate in the edition in India. However, ICC will run a new qualification process for the 2022 edition.
Women’s World Cup postponed
On the other hand, the ICC Women’s World Cup scheduled to take place in New Zealand in February 2021 has also been postponed. As per the revised schedule, the event will take place in February-March the following year.
“There has been no women’s international cricket played since the conclusion of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup earlier this year and due to the varying impact of COVID-19 globally that is likely to remain the situation for a number of the teams,” Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said in a statement.
“Moving the event by 12 months gives all competing teams the chance to play a sufficient level of cricket ahead of both the qualification event and leading into a Cricket World Cup so the integrity of the tournament is maintained,” he added.
A number of women cricketers including Mithali Raj welcomed the decision. She said it will give all the teams the necessary time to prepare for the big event.