Rashid Latif And Shoaib Akhtar Allege That ICC And Its Member Boards Deliberately Postponed The T20 World Cup For The IPL

Rashid Latif, former Pakistan captain, and former speedster Shoaib Akhtar have leveled serious allegations against the ICC and its member boards for postponing the T20 World Cup to make way for the Indian Premier League to take place.

The International Cricket Council [ICC] recently postponed the T20 World Cup, which was set to take place in Australia later this year, till 2022, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The postponement of the T20 World Cup has paved way for a clear window for the IPL, which is all set to take place in UAE.

Rashid Latif and Shoaib Akhtar claimed that they had predicted the same back in March when the IPL was postponed and question marks were being raised about the viability of holding the T20 World Cup.

Rashid Latif and Shoaib Akhtar allege all cricket boards were involved in the decision-making

Rashid Latif said all the cricket boards along with the ICC are involved in the decision-making process as all of them stand to gain financially from the IPL.

“Cricket boards around the world, be it India, Pakistan or England, they mostly look at the financial packages. All the boards are in this together, not just the BCCI alone. Everybody was in agreement with this decision, it’s not just India who stand to benefit if the T20 World Cup didn’t happen,” Rashid Latif told Geo Cricket.

“The T20 WC could have been played in February-March but it would have affected Pakistan (due to PSL 2020). Then in April-May the IPL was scheduled so the BCCI would have been affected, then in November-December Australia are supposed to host the Big Bash League. Everybody in the ICC benefits from this decision now,” he said.

“BCCI Sourav Ganguly announced beforehand that the Asia Cup had to be cancelled even before the official statement came out. Whether he was told by PCB boss Ehsan Mani or the Sri Lankan cricket board, all this was all pre-planned,” he added.

Shoaib Akhtar, meanwhile, said that he knew that both the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup will not take place this year. Akhtar also called on the BCCI to make efforts to save the sport, else it will continue to decline.

“Ultimately a powerful man, or a powerful cricket board they run the policy and they make sure they you suffer. T20 WC and Asia Cup could have been played this year, this was a chance for India and Pakistan to play against each other but they let it go. There are a lot of reasons behind this I don’t want to go into details.

“T20 WC could have been played but me and Rashid have said this repeatedly that they won’t let it happen, it won’t happen. IPL shouldn’t get damaged, the T20 World Cup can go to hell. India needs to save cricket immediately otherwise it won’t affect my era,” he said.

“The quality of cricket will decline but people will continue to make millions of dollars from the sport. Even the following will reduce just like it did in Pakistan after the 2017 Champions Trophy triumph,” Akhtar said.

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