ICC postpones 2020 men's T20 World Cup by one year, giving BCCI bigger window to host IPL

The uncertainty surrounding the fate of the Men’s ICC T20 World Cup 2020 finally came to an end on Monday with the International Cricket Council postponing the event by a year to 2021. The move has resulted in the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup, which will be hosted by India, to be shifted to the October-November window instead of February-March as originally planned. The development was confirmed by the ICC through an official media release, in which it cited the COVID-19 outbreak as the reason behind the postponement.

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The #T20WorldCup scheduled to take place in Australia this year has been officially postponed. pic.twitter.com/PZnzVOmW8T

— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) July 20, 2020

“The decision to postpone the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup was taken after careful consideration of all of the options available to us and gives us the best possible opportunity of delivering two safe and successful T20 World Cups for fans around the world,” ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney said in the release. The new windows for the next three men’s ICC events are as follows: ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 will be held October–November 2021 with the final on 14 November, 2021. ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 will be held October–November 2022 with the final on 13 November, 2022. ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 will be held in India October–November 2023 with the final on 26 November, 2023. The board also added that the 2021 Women’s ODI World Cup remains unaffected by the rescheduling of the men’s events. The Women’s World Cup remains on schedule, and will take place between 6 February and 7 March in New Zealand. The postponement of both the men’s T20 World Cup as well as the Asia Cup thus gives the BCCI a larger window to host the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League, which was originally supposed to have taken place between March and May. The Men’s T20 World Cup was the second ICC event scheduled for the year after the women’s edition, which took place in February-March earlier this year, with both events hosted by Australia. The women’s event culminated in Meg Lanning-led Australia hammering India by 85 runs in the final at a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground to lift the title for a fifth time. The final took place on Women’s Day (8 March), and nearly broke the record for the highest attendance in a women’s sporting event. IPL 2020, on the other hand, was originally scheduled to begin on 29 March with the opening game between defending champions Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, and the final scheduled for 24 May. A total of 60 matches had been scheduled this year. The tournament was initially put on hold till 15 April due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in India, which had also forced the suspension of South Africa’s tour of India, before being suspended indefinitely.