Kolkata: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday (August 7) confirmed that the Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 that was postponed due to COVID-19 will be held in Australia in 2022. India will host the Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 as planned.
The cricket’s governing body has also decided to postpone the 2021 Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand till February-March 2022 because of the impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic globally. Earlier, it was scheduled to be held in New Zealand in February-March 2021. All the decision was taken by the ICC Business Corporation and the business development wing of the ICC, which met in a virtual meeting on Friday.
The T20 World Cup in 2021 will take place between October-November, with the final scheduled on November 14. Australia, who was originally meant to host the 2020 edition, will now host the tournament in 2022 between October-November with the final scheduled for November 13.
ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said, “We now have absolute clarity on the future of ICC events enabling all of our Members to focus on the rescheduling of lost international and domestic cricket. We will now proceed as planned with the Men’s T20 WC 2021 in India and host the 2022 edition in Australia.”
“We have taken the decision to move the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup to give players from every competing nation, the best opportunity to be ready for the world’s biggest stage and there is still a global qualifier to complete to decide the final three teams,” he added.
“There has been no women’s international cricket played since the conclusion of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup earlier this year and due to the varying impact of COVID-19 globally that is likely to remain the situation for a number of the teams. Moving the event by 12 months gives all competing teams the chance to play a sufficient level of cricket ahead of both the qualification event and leading into a Cricket World Cup so the integrity of the tournament is maintained.”
🚨 TOURNAMENT UPDATES 🚨
🇮🇳 2021 @T20WorldCup ➡️ India
🇦🇺 2022 #T20WorldCup ➡️ Australia
🇳🇿 2021 Women’s @CricketWorldCup postponed to 2022 pic.twitter.com/4bVmTIkQCt— ICC (@ICC) August 7, 2020
ICC Acting Chairman Imran Khwaja said, “Over the last few months as we have considered how we return to staging global events, our number one priority has been to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in ICC events.”
Khwaja added, “The decisions the Board have taken today are in the best interests of the sport, our partners and importantly our fans. I’d like to thank our partners at the BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket New Zealand as well as the Australian and New Zealand governments for their continued support and commitment to a safe return to ICC events.”
The ICC confirmed that the format of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 will remain as it was for 2020 and all teams that qualified for that event will now participate in India in 2021. A new qualification process will be run for the Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. The format of the postponed ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2022 will also remain as it was for 2021.
