Considering the spike in COVID-19 cases in India lately, it has become immensely challenging to stage the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in the country, slated to be held in October-November.
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Amid the recent development, ICC’s bio-safety head Dave Musker has said that the twin city 'Cluster Caravan' format being used by the BCCI in the ongoing IPL could be the template for the global governing body during the T20 World Cup.
In order to hold discussions and also examine the arrangements for the marquee tournament, an ICC team will be visiting India from April 26.
Meanwhile, the BCCI has zeroed in on nine venues for the T20 World Cup – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Lucknow, Dharamsala.
"....The way the IPL is managed, they only have two venues engaged at one time. You haven't got eight venues at one time," Musker told ESPNCricinfo when asked if the number of venues could have been truncated.
"If the IPL works with this two-venue caravan model, then it is clearly a good starting point for us to understand how we may stage the men's T20 World Cup," he added.
Musker acknowledged that conducting a bilateral series in a bio-secure environment is much easier than staging a global event or a franchise league.
"The way I look at that is how many links you've got in the chain. If you have two teams, you've only got two links in the chain in one (biosafe) environment.
"If you have, for example, eight teams in the IPL -- which is not our tournament but we have taken learnings from -- you have got a significant additional complexity.
"So every additional link, every team, every different venue, you are adding a new complexity. None of this is straightforward, but tournament cricket, or franchise leagues, are much more tricky than bilateral series," he said.
Dave Musker is looking forward to see how the IPL works in India over the coming weeks amidst a sharp second COVID-19 wave.
"I'm fascinated to see how the IPL works in India over the coming weeks. We will be travelling to India on April 26 to see the arrangements there and are in touch with the BCCI on this. It is on top of our list of priorities.
"I don't think we'll be in position to really tie down what we are going to do in the autumn until we see how the IPL goes. I'm looking forward to the way that that is put in place. But it will be foolish to make those prognostications now rather than waiting to see what happens in India in April and May," he said.
ICC’s bio-safety head is confident that there won't be much problem organising the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand in Southampton from June 18 to 22.
"We are still in the process of negotiating what the biosafety will look like (for the WTC), which will be dependent on what is governmental policy in June.
"That requires a degree of prognostication because of all the (factors) around opening up a society, what happens with crowds at venues, and the pandemic situation in the UK. It is a dynamic situation. We have to be fleet of foot, have contingencies in place."
(With PTI inputs)
