After months of delay in the organisation of 2020 Men’s T20 World Cup, the International Cricket Council (ICC) held a meeting virtually on Monday, with a decision on the fate of the global tournament. As anticipated, the ICC decided on postponing the 2020 edition of the Men’s T20 World Cup due to an extensive spread of coronavirus pandemic which brought cricket to a halt early this year.
Originally, the mega showpiece event was scheduled to take place in Australia from October 18. At today’s meeting of the IBC Board (the commercial subsidiary of the ICC), the windows for the next three ICC men’s events were also decided.
These windows for the Men’s events are:
- ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 will be held October – November 2021 with the final on November 14 2021
- ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 will be held October – November 2022 with the final on November 13 2022
- ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 will be held in India October – November 2023 with the final on November 26 2023
“The IBC Board agreed to continue to monitor the rapidly changing situation and assess all the information available in order to make a considered decision on future hosts to ensure the sport is able to stage safe and successful global events in 2021 and 2022,” the ICC said in a statement.
“The IBC Board will also continue to evaluate the situation concerning being able to stage the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 in New Zealand in February next year. In the meantime, planning for this event continues as scheduled,” the statement read.
Manu Sawhney, the ICC chief executive, said: “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.
“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 gave us the best possible opportunity of delivering two safe and successful T20 World Cups for fans around the world,” Sawhney added.
“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 next 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,” CEO of the international apex body added further.
“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,” concluded Sawhney.
