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T20 World Cup “unrealistic” and “very, very difficult” this year – CA chairman

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T20 World Cup “unrealistic” and “very, very difficult” this year – CA chairman | CA chairman Earl Eddings believes the T20 World Cup is unlikely to go ahead this year

Earl Eddings, the chairman of Cricket Australia, believes it is unlikely that the T20 World Cup will be going ahead this year. The global event, scheduled to be hosted by Cricket Australia between 18th October and 15th November, has dark clouds over its future amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Eddings believes that it is very difficult to get players from 16 countries into Australia as the COVID-19 peak has come or is yet to come in some countries. The chairman of Cricket Australia, who is part of the ICC, believes that time is running out. He also stated that CA had given ICC various options to move the tournament out of Australia.

Also read: 3 key reasons why the T20 World Cup is unlikely to go ahead

“I sit on the ICC and we’re having meetings as we speak,” Eddings said as reported to ESPNCricinfo. “It’s a bit of a moving feast at the moment. I’d say it’s unlikely, while it hasn’t been formally called off this year or postponed, trying to get 16 countries into Australia in the current world where most countries are still going through COVID-19 spiking, I think it’s unrealistic or would be very, very difficult. We’ve put forward a number of different options to the ICC we’re working through at the moment.”

The ICC was expected to officially postpone the tournament on 10th June, but deferred it until July as it plays the waiting game.

ICC Chief Manu Sawhney believes that the right decision will be taken after consulting all the stakeholders surrounding the event.

Since May, Eddings has asked the ICC to consider postponing the T20 World Cup for the second time. He addressed an email to the ICC’s Finance & Commercial Affairs Committee, proposing India and Australia swap hosting the tournament over the next two years. Eddings was of the opinion that the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup to be held in India and the 2022 tournament will be hosted by Australia. This will financially help all countries.

Kevin Roberts, who was sacked by Cricket Australia earlier this week, said last month that hosting the tournament was of very high risk. The ICC however was looking at alternative windows over the next 12 months to host the T20 World Cup. According to ESPNCricinfo, the ICC was eyeing to host the tournament in February-March, by preponing the Women’s World Cup, hosted in New Zealand, to January.

Kevin Roberts
Kevin Roberts previously said the staging the T20 World Cup is a “high risk” option.

Robert’s temporary replacement, Nick Hockley, who is also chief of the local organising committee, believes that CA is ready for any situation.”There’s a huge amount of work going on around [T20 World Cup] contingency planning,” Hockley said on Tuesday. “I think there’s meetings coming up next month at ICC level where some decisions will be made, and we’ve got a fantastic local organising committee who are busy preparing for every eventuality and the decision that will come forth.”

PCB chairman Ehsan Mani, who also sits on the ICC board, also agrees that staging the tournament in 2020 is “unfeasible”. Mani believes that a decision will be made in the next three-to-four weeks.

“The biggest challenge in Australia – although Australia and New Zealand they have controlled COVID-19 – their governments are very cautious,” Mani said on Wednesday. “If it is played this year they will likely insist it happens in a bio-bubble. Like with the Pakistan team in England, teams come, stay in a hotel, with no crowds. This is okay for one or two teams but when 12-16 teams play in a T20 tournament, it becomes an impossible thing. I don’t think it is feasible today that there is any ICC event in 2020.”

The further doubt surrounding the T20 World Cup increases the likelihood of the IPL taking place in the October-November window.

Written by Sarthak Karkhanis. Follow Sarthak on Twitter today.

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Sarthak Karkhanis
Sarthak Karkhanis
Sarthak is a well-established cricket writer and video producer. In addition to writing for CricBlog, Sarthak has worked with Star Sports, ESPNcricinfo, The Quint, and Hotstar.

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