DUBAI: The ICC board, which met here Tuesday, has sent a clear signal to the mandarins in the Board of Control for Cricket in India that the “majority opinion” in the cricketing world is that the Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 should NOT be hosted in India.
The ICC board confirmed that it has requested its management to focus its planning efforts for the T20 World Cup on the event being staged in the UAE, with the possibility of including another venue in the Middle East.
In this regard, the ICC board has asked the BCCI to revert back with its opinion on the feasibility of hosting the T20 World Cup in India by June 28.
Once the ICC board has received BCCI’s “report card”, a final decision on the host country will be taken. The ICC board also confirmed that the BCCI will remain the hosts of the event, regardless of where the event is played.
It bears noting that the BCCI continues to explore “all possibilities” to host the World T20 in India even as the country is still a very long way away from bringing the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic under control.
Towards this end, the BCCI’s focus is on the modalities of such an eventuality. IF the world governing body does eventually agree to allow the BCCI to deliver the event “in-house”, what can stated definitively is that the games will NOT be allotted to nine venues as was originally envisaged.
“The COVID-19 cases are reducing but obviously it is still not a situation where we can firmly commit to hosting the World T20,” a senior BCCI source told PTI.
Said source further told the newswire: “If BCCI manages to host the tournament in October-November, which is currently a 50-50 probability, it could well mean single city three venues in Mumbai along with Pune and Ahmedabad as venue for the final.
“This curtails travel. But Pakistan team playing in Maharashtra and Gujarat also needs to be factored in.”
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