BCCI And Cricket Australia To Conduct A Virtual Meeting On 09 August To Discuss The Hosting Rights Of 2021 And 2022 T20 World Cups

The Board of Control for Cricket in India [BCCI] and Cricket Australia [CA] are set to conduct a virtual meeting on Friday to discuss the hosting rights for the ICC T20 World Cups’, scheduled to take place in 2021 and 2022.

The ICC T20 World Cup was originally scheduled to take place in Australia between October-November 15 but the same was postponed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The postponement made way for the Indian Premier League, which will now take place in the UAE from September 19.

According to a report published by the Press Trust of India, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah along with Cricket Australia’s Earl Eddings and Nick Hockley could reach a consensus on the hosting rights. The decision could also be impacted by the stands of the two boards regarding the issue of the next  ICC chairman, the nomination for which is yet to announced.

“The main agenda of the meeting is scheduling of ICC tournaments including the women’s ODI World Cup in New Zealand early next year. It is expected that some decisions will be taken,” an ICC Board member was quoted as saying by PTI.

Both BCCI and Cricket Australia are keen to host the 2021 T20 World Cup

It is understood that Australia will like to host the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup as it had already started preparing for the marquee event and wouldn’t like to wait for another year. Similarly, the BCCI, who are the original hosts for the 2021, would not like to forego its right, considering it will also host the 2023 50-over event and hosting two mega competitions within a space of one year could turn out to be an overkill.

“The BCCI was originally scheduled to host the T20 World Cup in 2021 and they would like to go ahead. Another reason being, hosting a T20 World Cup in 2022 and then a 50 over global event within a gap of just one year. It would be an overkill,” another ICC board member said.

That said, Cricket Australia has few things in their favor. The ICC website states that those who have booked their tickets for the T20 World Cup should wait till the next announcement, which means that CA clearly wants to host the event in 2021.

“The ICC website states that those who have booked match tickets for the Australia World T20 event should wait till further announcement. The reason being CA wants to host the event next year,” he said.

The official also stated that the details of the 2022 Women’s World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in New Zealand, could be finalized in the next ICC meeting.

“Yes, the qualification tournament is yet to be finished and since every country’s Covid situation is different, that is one headache that the ICC has. Going by health safety issues, New Zealand is one of the best-performing nations globally,” he said.

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