After a barrage of speculations and predictions, the fate of 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia has been deferred until June 10.
The year 2020 was a lineup with two marquee events of the shortest format of the game namely, the thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the T20 World Cup down under.
However, with the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, the IPL was suspended indefinitely, and action had to be taken on the showpiece multilateral event scheduled in October, this year.
Also, another T20 World Cup in the year 2021 is scheduled in India. Many proposed about the possibility of IPL being slotted in place of the World Cup in Australia, which in turn, would take place in February 2021. Moreover, slotting in two World Cups in a single year did not seem a viable option.
“The Board also requested the ICC management continue with their discussions with stakeholders in exploring various contingency options in light of the rapidly changing public health situation caused by the COVID 19 virus,” ICC stated in its release.
“A number of Board members had raised their concerns over this issue recently and felt it required immediate attention to ensure the sanctity and confidentiality of Board matters in line with the highest standards of governance,” added the release.
Reportedly, the information released was leaked and it was a matter of confidentiality which ICC raised concerns with.
“There was unanimous agreement to immediately initiate an independent investigation led by the ICC’s Ethics Officer and supported by global experts. The Board will be updated on this by the ICC CEO at its next meeting on 10 June 2020,” the apex council said further.
It is learnt that ICC is looking at all the options viable for the conduct of 2020 T20 World Cup given the release of the Cricket Australia’s itinerary on Thursday. However, questions were raised as to why the showpiece event cannot go ahead in such a scenario.
“If you look at the Australian itinerary, India’s T20 games are scheduled in mid-October before the start of World T20. If you can play T20 games in mid-October, why is it not safe to play World T20,” a source close to the matter affirmed.
