England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive Tom Harrison confirmed receiving offers to host England's domestic, international fixtures abroad from the board's counterparts in Australia, New Zealand among others. That, if the COVID-19 pandemic relents from those countries before UK, where on Friday (April 24) the ECB was forced to extend the game's period of suspension till July 1.
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"We've had offers as far away as Australia and New Zealand. Those offers are on the table," Harrison was quoted as saying by the BBC. "I haven't had anything from Abu Dhabi, but that's not to say the offer hasn't been made."
Men's Test series against West Indies, two of the women's T20Is versus India scheduled for June were jeopardized on Friday, apart from the nine rounds of County Championship fixtures that also stand postponed at this stage.
All options, said Harrison, are on the discussion table in order to safeguard the sport's future. One of those is to conduct games behind closed doors whenever safe to do so.
"Inevitably, behind closed doors does change the venue allocation and the mindset," he said. "It goes from taking the game around the country to give fans a chance to see England in their back yard. That shifts because there's no-one seeing England play live at all."
"You can see what other sports are considering: allocating neutral venues for all matches and then playing in those. That's the lens we're putting on this. What's the minimum number of grounds we need for our desired international schedule and how to cater for that."
The summer was to see the inauguration of ECB's brainchild, The Hundred, which now seems improbable given the circumstances. However, the ECB won't shelve the concept entirely considering it could boost its finances in times of crisis when played in a new window.
"I don't think this in any way dilutes the case for The Hundred. It absolutely accelerates it and makes it something cricket needs to get behind," Harrison said.
"If anything, this crisis and the implication long term or medium term, the case for The Hundred is even more important. It will generate really important commercial value for the game and it will help broaden the audience."
(Inputs from PTI)
