Cricket Australia Director and former Australia captain Mark Taylor urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to take a decision on the men’s T20 World Cup. The tournament is scheduled to be held from October 19 to November 15 in Australia, but is under a cloud of uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It would probably be good (if a decision is made this week),” Taylor told the Nine Network. “Because then everyone can start planning and we can stop sitting here and saying ‘well ifs, buts or maybes’.”
The window of October to November is also a period that the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) is looking at as a potential period to hold the Indian Premier League (IPL).
But they have made it clear that is only if the ICC decides to postpone the showpiece event.
The cash-rich T20 league was scheduled to start on March 29 but was postponed due to the outbreak of the pandemic in India.
“My feeling is the World T20 won’t go ahead in Australia in October as planned. Is it going to be viable to have a world tournament in October or November? The answer to that is probably no,” said Taylor.
While many of the current and former Australian players have themselves said that they don’t see the likelihood of the World T20 happening in October-November as per initial schedule due to the restrictions that have come in due to the coronavirus pandemic, former Australia skipper Allan Border has made it clear that the Indian Premier League shouldn’t be given priority over the showpiece event.
“(I’m) not happy with that, the world game should take precedence over a local competition. So, the World T20, if that can’t go ahead, I don’t think the IPL can go ahead,” Border said on ABC’s Grandstand Cafe radio programme.
“I would question that decision (to replace it) — it’s just a money grab, isn’t it, that one? The World T20 should take precedence, for sure.”
Indian govt to decide fate of IPL, not cricket board: minister
India’s sports minister yesterday said any decision to allow the Indian Premier League to go ahead this year would be taken by the government, not the Indian cricket board, and would be based on how well the country has contained the novel coronavirus.
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said the IPL would go ahead only if there was no risk to public health.
“In India the government has to take a call and it will be depending on the situation of the pandemic, how we progress as a nation,” Rijiju told the India Today television channel.
“We can’t put health of the nation at risk just because we want sporting events to be held. Our focus is fighting Covid-19.”
The BCCI, the richest cricket body in the world, had said it would consider staging the lucrative IPL in October/November if the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in Australia during those months, did not go ahead.
The IPL is worth almost $530 mn to the BCCI and attracts the best international and Indian cricketers. It was scheduled to start at the end of March but was indefinitely postponed because of the pandemic. India has reported 131,868 infections from the new coronavirus, with 3,867 deaths.
In this May 12, 2019, picture, Mumbai Indians celebrate their victory in the Indian Premier League. (AFP)
