ICC defers decision on T20 World Cup till June 10

The International Cricket Council on Thursday deferred a decision on the future of the T20 World Cup till June 10. The governing council was expected to take a fine call on the fate of the T20I showpiece but decided to postpone it due to confidentiality of board matters.

The World Cup will take place from October 18 to November 15 in Australia. It was recently reported that the Indian Premier League could replace the global event in the October-November window. In fact, the official announcement was expected to be made after the ICC board meeting which was held yesterday (May 28).

However, the ICC had squashed such reports on May 27 and stated that the plans are still on to host the T20 World Cup as it is scheduled in October-November.

ICC in its release said: “A number of board members had raised their concerns over this issue recently and felt it required immediate attention to ensure the sanctity and confidentiality of board matters in line with the highest standards of governance.

“There was unanimous agreement to immediately initiate an independent investigation led by the ICC’s Ethics Officer and supported by global experts. The board will be updated on this by the ICC CEO at its next meeting on 10 June 2020.

In fact, most of the current and former players have cast their doubts over the hosting of the global event in October-November. The Australian government has barred travel till mid-September.

There is no doubt that it is going to be difficult to host the T20 World Cup as 15 teams will need to travel to Australia. Furthermore, all the 16 teams will need to travel across the different venues and it will be hard from a logistical point of view.

If the 2020 T20 World Cup is postponed, it could take place in 2022 as the next year edition of 2021 is going to take place in India.

The ICC will be under the scrutiny for hosting the tournament in 2020. All the global events of 2020 have been postponed as the Olympics and Wimbledon were deferred to 2021.

Moreover, even if the T20 World Cup is hosted in October-November, there are good chances that the tournament will be played behind closed doors. Ergo, there is expected to be a loss of $5 million to $10 million to ICC and Cricket Australia as no sale of match tickets will be possible.