The T20 World Cup, scheduled to be played in Australia in October-November this year, has formally been postponed to 2022.
The announcement after Monday’s International Cricket Council (ICC) Board meeting has cleared the decks for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to reschedule the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the same window.
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Besides deferring the T20 World Cup to October-November, 2022, the ICC Board also decided to push the 2023 ODI World Cup in India to October-November that year from February-March.
“Moving the Men’s Cricket World Cup (2023) to a later window is a critical element of this and gives us a better chance of maintaining the integrity of the qualification process,” ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney said in a statement.
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“This additional time will be used to reschedule games that might be lost because of the pandemic, ensuring qualification can be decided on the field of play.”
No venues specified
Interestingly, the ICC statement didn’t specify the venues for the T20 World Cups in 2021 and 2022.
India was awarded the 2021 tournament, but its host status was threatened after it did not meet the first deadline for securing tax exemptions from the Central government. As of now, India still retains hosting rights, with the ICC extending the deadline to December 31.
India would want to keep the 2021 edition, given it’s the host of the 2023 ODI World Cup; it would rather space the big events out than stage them in successive years.
IPL plans to take shape
Monday’s announcement will result in the BCCI and the franchises switching to IPL mode. The BCCI has shortlisted two windows (September 26 to November 7 and September 26 to November 14) and will approach the Central government for clearance once the IPL governing council, set to meet on Friday, formally proposes the United Arab Emirates as the venue.
“Now that the T20 World Cup has been postponed, something that should have happened much earlier, we can try and explore whether the IPL can be staged,” IPL governing council chairman Brijesh Patel told The Hindu.
