ICC’s board meeting to decide on World T20 postponement to make way for October IPL

PTI, May 27, 2020, 12:29 PM IST

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New Delhi: The postponement of this year’s T20 World Cup in Australia to 2022, which might open up a window for the lucrative Indian Premier League in October, is expected to be formalized when the International Cricket Council’s all-powerful board holds a teleconference on Thursday, May 28.

The decision, if it is formalized, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic will give members a chance to chalk out their bilateral blueprint in the coming months.

“There is a good chance that postponement of World T20 will be decided during Thursday’s board meeting. Whether there will be a formal announcement or not is the question,” an ICC board member told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

“There is very little chance of World T20 going ahead in this situation. I don’t think either Cricket Australia or the top boards will mind,” he added.

PTI had reported on May 15 that ICC’s Events Committee led by Chris Tetley might present multiple options and one of the options that members are likely to seriously contemplate is shifting the tournament to October-November, 2022 while India hosts its edition in 2021.

It can also be safely concluded that India will be touring Australia at the end of the year as members are likely to give more precedence to bilateral engagements to recover from the financial losses incurred during the pandemic.

The board member also said that it’s not only about the countries but also about broadcasters Star Sports, which incidentally holds rights for both the ICC events as well as BCCI’s ‘India Cricket’ rights and the IPL rights.

“There are a few questions that need to be asked. The commercial viability of having a T20 World Cup in February-March 2021. Before that, an IPL in October-November window and another IPL in the March-May window,” a BCCI insider privy to the broadcast deals said.

“So we are looking at three big-ticket tournaments in six months. In this current economic scenario, that will be a very bad call,” he added.