Cricketers Not Confident That The T20 World Cup Will Go Ahead Even As The ICC Continues With Its Preparations

The onslaught of the global pandemic that is the novel coronavirus has put a screeching halt on the cricket calendar. Almost every high-profile series/tournament has been canceled and the upcoming T20 World Cup is also threatening to get jeopardized with the situation not showing signs of any improvement.

The International Cricket Council [ICC]] has maintained the fact that preparations for the tournament will continue as per original plans, but the players have been expressing their reservations against the feasibility of holding the quadrennial event in the current scenario in the past few days.

Recently, an ICC official has said that the apex body has not had any meeting with Cricket Australia regarding the contingency plans for the tournament.

“There has been no meeting (in the last week) and there is no update. Contingency planning continues,” the official said.

Also Read: ICC T20 World Cup In October Seems Impractical, Says BCCI Official

David Warner, Glenn Maxwell and many other cricketers have already expressed their reservations regarding the staging of T20 World Cup

Coming back to the players expressing their reservations against the feasibility of holding the tournament in such a scenario, David Warner recently said in an Instagram Live session with Rohit Sharma that the World Cup will not go ahead considering it will be difficult to get all the 16 teams together.

“The ICC World Cup will not go ahead here by the looks of it. It will be difficult to get everyone (16 teams) together.” Warner said on Instagram Live.

Echoing his opening partner’s opinion, Australian white-ball captain Aaron Finch also feels that the T20 World Cup might get postponed.

“I think we might have to get our heads around a T20 World Cup that might be postponed for a month, two months, three months, whatever it has to be,” Finch said on SEN Radio.

There have been suggestions that the T20 World Cup can be played behind closed doors but Glenn Maxwell has expressed reservations against the same, stating that the tournament will not survive if there is no crowd.

“I’s going to be hard for us to have crowds. I think if IPL goes ahead they can probably survive without any crowds, but I can’t see the T20 World Cup surviving without any people there. It’s going to be hard for us to justify having a World Cup when we can’t get people into the grounds. So I can’t see it happening in the near future. We’ve got to take care of everyone’s health and wellbeing.” Maxwell told ABC Grandstand.

Apart from the aforementioned names, the likes of Imam Ul Haq and Chris Lynn have also expressed their concerns regarding the staging of the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to start on October 18.

Also Read: Kesrick Williams Reveals What Charged Up Virat Kohli Apart From The Notebook Celebration During 2019 T20 Series