ICC’s interim CEO Geoff Allardice on Wednesday (April 7) stated that the governing body has backup plans in place for the T20 World Cup, slated to be played in India later this year but is not considering shifting the marquee event.
Notably, India is reporting over one lakh COVID-19 cases on a daily basis for the past few days and the tournament is due to be held in the country in October-November.
Amid the COVID spike, the 2021 edition of Indian Premier League is scheduled to start on April 9 in Chennai. The tournament will be played behind closed doors.
“We are certainly proceeding with the event as planned,” Allardice said during a virtual media round-table, as quoted by PTI.
“Plan B we have, but we haven’t activated those plans yet. We are working with the BCCI, we do have backup plans that can be activated if the time comes,” he added.
Allardice also mentioned that the ICC is also in contact with other sports bodies to understand how they are managing in the COVID era.
“Cricket is being played in a number of countries at the moment and we are learning from all of them.
“We have been talking to others sports bodies about what they are doing, we are in a good shape at the moment but acknowledge that the world is changing at a rapid rate.
“We have also got the World Test Championship final coming up in two months’ time, but we are proceeding with both as planned,” he said.
The UAE, which staged the IPL last year, might be one of the backup venues for the T20 World Cup 2020 if the situation arises to move the event.
Allardice spoke about the challenges countries are facing while hosting cricket matches and tournaments.
“The vaccination role in different countries might change the dynamics… They have done an amazing job in the last 10 months in hosting matches.”
He also acknowledged that COVID-19 has affected the women’s game.
“Last 3-4 years the momentum we built around international cricket is fantastic. The final (between India and Australia) (at a packed) MCG was a special moment.”
(With PTI inputs)
