Kumar Sangakkara Hints ICC Might Cancel 2020 T20 World Cup This Year

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) President Kumar Sangakkara is unsure about the commencement of the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia from October. Sangakkara believes the decision to be taken by the International Cricket Council (ICC) will largely depend upon the novel coronavirus pandemic situation.

Meanwhile, the global governing council were set to decide the fate of T20 World Cup on May 28, but following the board meeting which majorly focused on the “issue of confidentiality” and ended with the setting up of an “independent” investigation into the matter, the decision on the marquee tournament has been deferred to June 10.

Kumar Sangakkara: the options may be to cancel it this year, postpone it to another year

Kumar Sangakkara opened up a valid argument on the novel coronavirus pandemic. He said the state of the deadly virus is not known, whether it will stay, or like  SARS and MERS it will disappear in a few months. The decision on the 2020 T20 World Cup will largely depend on that but the global governing council might have kept their options open to postpone the marquee tournament to next year.

“Everyday, there are new learnings, new things being found out, so we will have to wait and see, but the options may be to cancel it this year, postpone it to another year, but to have in place anticipatory procedures that take into account health and safety of both the players and the spectators, and make sure that’s iron clad,” Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) President Kumar Sangakkara said on on Star Sports show Cricket Connected.

The 16-team 2020 T20 World Cup is originally slated to take place from October 18 to November 15.