With India experiencing intense COVID-19 transmission and the situation just beyond heartbreaking, the questions have started rising over the future of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 scheduled to be held in India in October-November this year due to the latest Coronavirus outbreak.
The current crisis of COVID-19 in India has sparked the rumors of shifting the T20 World Cup 2021 to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as the International Cricket Council (ICC) is reportedly closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation in the country and even put up UAE as a standby option for the showpiece event to be held later this year.
According to Daily Mail, Sri Lanka is also seen as an alternative option to India with ICC in regular contact with the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) as it is “monitoring the situation closely”.
Last year, the BCCI had organized the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) across the three venues in the UAE even when the daily COVID-19 infection count was significantly lower, but this year, there were over 3 lakh Coronavirus cases have been recorded for the last week.
An ICC delegation is currently in India and last week proposed nine venues for the T20 World Cup and they are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Dharamsala, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Mumbai part of the list finalized by the BCCI's Apex Council.
It is being said that the ICC is closely watching the 2021 IPL which is being conducted on a caravan model by the BCCI with the eight teams split across two venues at a time.
