Last Update on: June 28th, 2021 at 05:09 pm
BCCI Vice-President Rajiv Shukla has said that uncertainty regarding the Covid situation in the country forced the board to shift the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup from India to the United Arab Emirates.
On Monday, President Sourav Ganguly confirmed that the board has informed the ICC that the quadrennial event can be shifted to the Emirates.
India, however, will remain the host of the competition.
‘’As far as T20 World Cup is concerned, today (June 28) 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,” Rajiv Shukla told news agency ANI on Monday.
‘’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.
Claiming that UAE is an ideal venue to host the T20 World Cup, Rajiv Shukla said that while the BCCI wanted to stage the tournament in India, the decision was taken considering the volatile Covid situation and the magnanimity of the event.
‘’UAE is an ideal venue after India. We all wanted to host it in India, but you know it is an international tournament and that too of big size, so it was very hard to predict what is going to happen with the COVID situation, after due consideration, now the BCCI has decided to move the T20 World Cup to the UAE,” he said.
Shukla, however, asserted that the dates of the T20 World Cup remain unchanged and the marquee event will start two days after the IPL 2021 final, which is scheduled to take place on October 15.
”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,” he added.
The T20 World Cup will kick start on October 17 with the qualifying round where eight teams including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will take part alongside several associate nations like Oman, PNG, Namibia.
The top-2 teams from each group will then join the top-8 ranked teams for the Super-12s. India is placed in Group-2 alongside England, South Africa, and Afghanistan. The table-topper from Group B- Bangladesh, Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia- and the second-placed team from Group A- Sri Lanka, PNG, Oman, Ireland- will join them post the qualifying round.
The final of the T20 World Cup will take place on November 14.
Also Read- BCCI Confirms UAE As The Venue For The 2021 T20 World Cup
