New Delhi: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the entire world to a standstill. And for a sports lover, it’s much more frustrating. The pandemic led to either cancellation or postponement of all sporting events across the world, including the Olympics. The 2020 T20 World Cup, which was scheduled to be played in Australia between October 18 and November 15 this year, has also been postponed.
However, cricket lovers got a glimpse of hope after the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the dates for the men’s World Cups for three consecutive years 2021, 2022 (both T20 ) and 2023 (ODI). The ICC did not mention where the T20 World Cups in 2021 and 2022 will be held although the 2021 edition is originally slated to be held in India.
“The council confirmed the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia 2020 has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic worldwide,” ICC had said in its statement. The ICC revealed revised dates for their three upcoming global events in cricket. The 2023 World Cup is scheduled to be in India. The 2023 edition, which was initially scheduled to be held in the February-April has now been moved to October-November to allow longer qualification period.
- ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 will be held October-November 2021.
- ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 will be held October-November 2022.
- ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 will be held in India on October-November 2023.
“We have undertaken a comprehensive and complex contingency planning exercise and through this process, our number one priority has been to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in the sport,” ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney had said in the statement. “The decision to postpone the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup was taken after careful consideration of all of the options available to us and gives us the best possible opportunity of delivering two safe and successful T20 World Cups for fans around the world.”
He also said, “Our members now have the clarity they need around event windows to enable them to reschedule lost bilateral and domestic cricket. Moving the Men’s Cricket World Cup to a later window is a critical element of this and gives us a better chance of maintaining the integrity of the qualification process. 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.”
Sawhney even thanked everyone who were in support to take such a decision for a safe game-play. “Throughout this process, we have worked closely with our key stakeholders including governments, members, broadcasters, partners and medical experts to enable us to reach a collective decision for the good of the game and our fans. I would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment to a safe return to cricket,” he concluded.
