Ehsan Mani said that it is not feasible to hold major tournaments due to pandemic.
According to Ehsan Mani, the chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the head of International Cricket Board’s (ICC) Finance and Commercial Rights Committee, holding the T20 World Cup in Australia is not realistic due to the coronavirus outbreak.
‘We have had a lot of discussions and the feeling is it (T20 World Cup) would not be possible this year. ICC has World Cups lined up in 2021 and 2023, so we have a gap year where we can adjust this event. God forbid if some player falls ill or mishap occurs during the tournament, it will have a big impact and create panic in the cricket world and we can't take that risk’, Mani stated.
England is scheduled to host a Test series against the West Indies in July to be followed by Pakistan. However, a major tournament with a lot of teams seems impossible.
‘This is okay for one or two teams but when 12-16 teams play in a T20 tournament, it becomes an impossible thing. I don't think it is feasible today that there is an ICC event in 2020’, Mani said.
‘You'll see that in the next three-four weeks a decision will be taken on this. There is a conference call next week. We've had four-five con calls on this in the last month. Obviously, a decision will have to be made about where the first event will be. Right now it was to be Australia, then India and then a gap of one year and then India for the World Cup. Now we have to see whether it will be Australia first, or India, to see who will host in 2022’, he added.
ICC is the governing body of cricket and the organizer of T20 World Cup. To learn more about the ICC, check out Betwala.
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