Amidst the Covid-19 mayhem in India, the 2021 edition of T20 World Cup is set to be moved out of the country. An official decision is expected to be made at the International Cricket Council’s Executive Board meeting on June 1.
An anonymous source spoke to CricBuzz about the possibility of moving the event to the UAE.
“The ICC is not unaware of the situation but one cannot speculate on what will be the decision on June 1. One has to wait and see,”
the source said.
The UAE has been designated as a backup venue for the T20 World Cup, which is slated to happen from October 18 to November 15.
A Covid-19 second wave has ravaged India to the extent that even the bio-secure bubble of the IPL couldn’t survive. The BCCI had to suspend the 2021 edition of the tournament after multiple positive cases were found among players and support staff.
That unfortunate incident has weakened BCCI’s case of hosting the T20 World Cup in India, especially considering the Indian authorities and state governments are gearing up to counter the third wave of Covid-19.
“The case numbers are dropping and we do not think that it will take a U-turn again, and this is after we are testing everyone we can. But we are preparing ourselves for the third wave, if any, by having more jumbo field hospitals,”
Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Chahal had warned a few days back.
The officials and scientists are predicting a third wave and discussing the ways to avert it. The health authorities and hospitals have been directed to speed up their preparation for such a scenario. The ICC directors are also keeping an eye on the situation, but with so much uncertainty in the country, it is looking increasingly difficult to hold the 16-team event in India.
The BCCI has proposed nine venues for the event – Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Dharamsala and Lucknow. It is important to note that the cases during the IPL only started coming out after the teams travelled from one city to another. With such high risk, it would be nearly impossible to conduct the T20 WC in nine cities.
The batting coach of Chennai Super Kings, Mike Hussey, opined that it’s extremely risky to host the T20 WC in India this year, looking at the pandemic situation in the country. After IPL 2021 was postponed, Hussey had tested Covid positive and had to stay back in India until he recovered. Hussey, who is now back in Australia, spoke to Fox Cricket about the alarming situation.
“I think it’s going to be very difficult in my view to play T20 World Cup in India. We’re talking about eight teams in the IPL. I think there are probably a similar number, maybe more teams coming in from overseas for the T20 World Cup, there’d be more venues. As I said earlier, if they’re playing in different cities, that is when the risk goes up,”
Hussey said.
“I think they’ll have to look some pretty big contingency plans, perhaps looking at the UAE or somewhere like that that could host the World T20. I think there will be a lot of cricket boards around the world that’d be pretty nervous about going back to India for a cricket tournament,”
former Australia international further added.
