The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Vice President Rajiv Shukla on Monday said the decision was taken to move the T20 World Cup to the UAE due to the unpredictable COVID-19 situation in India.

Shukla, while talking to ANI, revealed that today was the deadline to inform ICC about BCCI’s decision on hosting T20 World Cup 2021 and that the same will be conveyed to ICC by BCCI president President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah.

“As far as T20 World Cup is concerned, today was the deadline as we had to inform the ICC about our decision so today there was a conference call between BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, Secretary Jay Shah, Treasurer Arun Dhumal, me and the Joint Secretary,” Shukla said.

T20 World Cup to be shifted from India to UAE, confirms BCCI President Sourav Ganguly

“We looked at the COVID-19 situation and nobody is sure what is going to happen after two three months, looking at everything, it has been decided that Secretary Jay Shah and President Ganguly will inform the ICC to move the tournament to the UAE,” he added.

The Vice President of BCCI then went on to talk about the schedule of the tournament along with the venues where the matches of this upcoming T20 World Cup match will be held.

“The dates are going to be the same, immediately after the IPL, the tournament will start. The format for the World Cup has already been decided by the ICC, qualifiers may take place in Oman and Muscat. The rest of the matches will be in the three grounds -- Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah,” the 61-year-old said.

Even though the board wanted to have the World Cup in India, but considering the grim COVID-19 condition in India, the ICC event was shifted to UAE.

(With ANI Inputs)