T20 World Cup in Australia likely to be delayed: If reports are to be believed, the showpiece event is all set to be delayed by a year.
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The outbreak of a “pandemic” in the novel COVID-19 is continuing to have significant impact on businesses across the globe. The sports industry, which works heavily on live events, is no exception.
Talking exclusively about cricket, from the scheduled and imminent international matches to the cash-rich Indian Premier League, all top-level tournaments have been postponed until the situation normalizes across the globe.
As far as English cricket is concerned, it has been delayed till May 28. With this period marking the start of their peak summer, they appear to set to make numerous scheduling changes.
T20 World Cup in Australia likely to be delayed
Other than IPL 2020, another high-profile tournament which is slated to happen this year is the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia. Set to happen after four years, there is a lot of hype regarding the tournament which will be played in Australia for the first time.
Having said that, it seems that the coronavirus might end up affecting it as well. If reports in The Times of India are to be believed, there are discussions being made to postponed the tournament by at least one year.
In addition to coronavirus, tight scheduling of international tournaments will also not allow the T20 World Cup to be delayed by a month or two. It is worth mentioning that India are already slated to host another T20 World Cup next year.
“The question being internally discussed was to postpone it but there was no status quo on ‘until when?’ Well, India is scheduled to tour Australia in December. Early next year, Australia have their Big Bash scheduled.
“March would not be an ideal time [with IPL 2021 to begin in April] because the broadcaster won’t agree to back-to-back T20 events. India is anyway hosting the 2021 T20 World Cup. So, the ideal choice has to be 2022,” a source in the vicinity of the developments was quoted as saying to The Times of India.
