DUBAI: The importance of India to any major event in world cricket cannot be overemphasised. The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday declared confidence that the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand will go ahead as planned in Southampton in June.
The final of the marquee event is to be played in a bio-secure bubble from 18-22 June at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton, with June 23 kept as the reserve day.
India is experiencing a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, prompting the United Kingdom, on Monday (April 19), to add India to its ‘red list’ and banning all arrivals from the country after reporting 103 cases of a coronavirus variant first identified in India.
However, the ICC is confident of staging the event as planned. “We are currently discussing with the UK Government the impact of countries being on the ‘red list’,” an ICC spokesperson said.
“The ECB and other members have demonstrated how we can stage international cricket safely in the middle of a pandemic, and we are confident that we can continue to do that and that the World Test Championship Final will go ahead as planned in June in the UK.”
India and New Zealand will go head-to-head in the final after finishing in the top two positions of the league table of the tournament.
