T20 World Cup 2020 News: ICC postpones T20 World Cup citing COVID-19 threat

ICC postpones T20 World Cup: The seventh season of the ICC T20 World Cup has been eventually postponed by the global body.

ICC (International Cricket Council) has finally postponed the seventh edition of the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 citing COVID-19 threat.

Originally slated to be played in Australia in October-November this year, the world event faced a daunting challenge from the novel COVID-19 pandemic. The idea of organizing a 16-team world tournament amidst a global crisis was being spoken against for months now.

In addition to Cricket Australia Chairman Earl Eddings and Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ehsan Mani, a Cricket Australia letter to ICC was also meant at delaying the world event by a year according to The Times of India a couple of months ago.

This was the year made for 2020 cricket but nevermind. 2021 it is!

— Usama Mir (@iamusamamir) July 20, 2020

ICC postpones T20 World Cup 2020

ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney 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 gives us the best possible opportunity of delivering two safe and successful T20 World Cups for fans around the world.”

While ICC has postponed this year’s T20 World Cup by a year, it is still unclear whether India will continue to host next year’s T20 World Cup or not. Originally scheduled to host the world event in 2021, India might now get to host the T20 World Cup in 2022 as ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 has been delayed to October-November 2023.

Earlier, it was being speculated that Australia would host the 2022 edition as India wouldn’t want to host two world events (T20 and ODI World Cup) within a span of six months.

As IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel had mentioned more than a month ago, the postponement of the T20 World Cup will allow the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) to confirm the fixtures IPL 2020.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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