Jimmy Neesham Bats For T20 World Cup Behind Closed Doors

Jimmy Neesham was a part of the New Zealand World Cup squad which came agonisingly close to clinch the title in 2019 but missed out by a whisker. The next marquee tournament is supposed to be the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia but clouds of uncertainty hover over it due to the novel coronavirus pandemic situation.

In this situation, safety and health has been given utmost importance, with an option of playing the tournament behind closed doors kept open. Cricket boards have suffered big losses due to no live sports and might proceed with the plan.

Jimmy Neesham: I do not think players would have any problem

Jimmy Neesham feels players should adapt to the situation and if it is not possible to have crowd there should not be any problem to play the T20 World Cup behind closed doors. He also emphasised on the boards facing huge challenge and the closed door tournament can be thus seen as an option.

“All things considered, you would rather have fans at the ground but you wanna adapt to the situation that is presented to you. If it becomes a situation where the tournament can only be played behind closed doors, then we have to adapt as the players. I think the reality is that it is a huge financial challenge for a lot of cricket boards to still run without any revenue coming in from matches,” Jimmy Neesham said in a videocast hosted by ESPNcricinfo.

“If it means we need to play behind closed doors, I do not think players would have any problem,” he added.

The 2020 T20 World Cup is slated to get underway from October 18.