ICC T20 World Cup in Australia likely to be postponed to 2022

Amid worldwide lockdown, the one industry that has been affected the most is the sports industry. Games like cricket, football, hockey, where thousands of people gather at one match, are affected the worse. But as the governments across the world are loosening the lockdown, sports authorities have started to reschedule their plans. In fact, ICC is on the verge of announcing the date of the T20 World Cup 2020.

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An ICC meeting is supposed to happen on Thursday, May 28, 2020. In the meeting, the board of directors will decide the dates of major cricket events like T20 World Cup 2020, IPL 2020, T20 World Cup 2021, etc. Though the final words will be out only when the meeting is done, some ICC internal persons have leaked the possible dates of these tournaments.

What are the new dates?

Talking to the media, an ICC internal said that the T20 World Cup 2020, which was supposed to be held in October this year, will be postponed to 2022. Amongst others, the foremost reason behind the postponement is the clash of two T20 World Cups in one year.

Because of the Coronavirus spread and worldwide lockdown, there were talks in the town that the ICC world cup will postpone to February-March 2021.  But, keeping the current scenario of the market in mind, it seems unlikely that the cricket associations can withstand the burden of holding two world-level tournaments of the same format, back to back.

If the ICC meeting decides to postpone the tournament, then the events schedule will go like this:

• 2020: IPL in India
• 2021: T2- world cup in India
• 2022: T20 world cup in Australia
• 2023: 50 overs world cup in India

There are mainly two reasons that make a case for postponement. First is that after the jolt of COVID-19, the markets are not ready for arranging two consecutive world level tournaments. And the second reason is the empty slots in 2022. If the ICC does not arrange the T20 world cup in 2020, no other world-level tournaments are happening in that year.

What about IPL?

Right now, BCCI and the broadcasters of India Premier League are not in a hurry to jump on any decision. They are monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely. If things get out of the hand, IPL 2020 may not see the light of the day. But, if the situation remains in control, then IPL may be held somewhere in October or November.

ICC can formally announce the date of the T20 world cup on May 28, 2020. But, the date of IPL will only be revealed in the month of July. Backchannel meetings in BCCI will happen in June, and then the matter will finally be closed by a formal meeting of the BCCI board of directors.

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