The ICC has been dilly-dallying on the decision to postpone the T20 World Cup to be held in Australia for two months now, but a final call is expected to be taken on July 20 when the board meets virtually.
BCCI would be eagerly awaiting the outcome of the meeting as this delay in the decision is affecting their plans of holding the IPL 2020 in case the T20 World Cup is postponed.
The global event is supposed to be held from 18 October to 15 November in Australia but the country's cricket board had, in May itself, expressed its inability to host amid a second surge of COVID-19 cases in the state of Victoria.
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India’s COVID-19 cases crossed the 10 lakh mark and in all possibility, the IPL will be moved to an overseas location, preferably UAE, once the central government clears it.
"The first step was the postponement of the Asia Cup, which has happened. We can only start to move ahead with our plans after the ICC announces the postponement. They have been sitting on the decision even after Cricket Australia said that they are not too keen on hosting the event," a BCCI Apex Council member told PTI.
This year's T20 World Cup will likely be held in Australia in 2022 as India doesn't want to swap its 2021 hosting rights with Cricket Australia as of now.
Australia asked its white-ball players to start preparing for a possible tour to England in September and this made it abundantly clear that they were not keen on hosting the ICC event. CA has even announced a 26-strong preliminary squad for that tour.
The ICC, on its part, has maintained that it wants to explore all possible "contingency" options before taking a call of such immense magnitude. And it is not unusual for the governing body to wait this long.
"Pakistan was supposed to host the Champions Trophy in 2009. After the terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan team bus, everyone in their proper senses knew that PCB will never host a big event in the distant future. Yet, ICC deputed its employees in Pakistan for months when South Africa was already preparing to host the event. Everyone knew but a formal announcement of shift took months as threat assessment was part of the protocol,” said a source familiar with the functioning of the ICC.
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"The ICC couldn't have just postponed 9the T20 World Cup) immediately as initially, the top ministers of the Australian government expressed keenness to host," he added.
The Pakistan Cricket Board has also resigned itself to this outcome, despite opposing the BCCI. The postponement of the Asia Cup, which was supposed to be hosted by the PCB, to 2021 was a big blow to Ehsan Mani and his team.
"We have had a lot of discussions and the feeling is it (T20 World Cup) would not be possible this year. ICC has World Cups lined up in 2021 and 2023 so we have a gap year where we can adjust this event," Mani had recently said while talking to reporters in his country.
(PTI inputs)
