India to host 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup; Women’s ODI World Cup postponed to 2022

In a major development, India were retained as hosts for the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, while Australia will host the 2022 edition of the same event. Additionally, the Women’s 50-over World Cup, which was scheduled to between 6 February and 7 March next year, has also been postponed to 2022. The decision was taken during the virtual ICC meeting on Friday, which was attended by top officials from BCCI and Cricket Australia, according to a report on ESPNCricinfo.

India: 2021 🇮🇳
Australia: 2022 🇦🇺

CONFIRMED: The next edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup will be held in India, while Australia will stage the tournament in 2022! pic.twitter.com/lcFzo4HK7N

— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) August 7, 2020

On 20 July, the ICC T20 World Cup 2020, which was to be hosted by Australia, was postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic. This allowed BCCI to stage the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) from 19 September to 10 November in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this year, which was postponed earlier in March. Australia will now host the 2022 edition instead of this year. India, meanwhile, remain the host nation for 2023 men’s ODI World Cup. The format for the 2021 edition will remain the same however it was planned for 2020, while a new qualification process will kickstart for the 2022 edition. There won’t be any format changes for the Women’s World Cup, the ICC confirmed via a media release. Hosts New Zealand, India, South Africa, England and Australia are the five of the eight teams that will take part in the 2022 tournament. The qualification event for the remaining three teams, which was supposed to be held in July this year, will now take place in 2021. ICC Acting Chairman Imran Khwaja commented on the development of ICC’s major global events. “Over the last few months as we have considered how we return to staging global events, our number one priority has been to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in ICC events. “The decisions the Board have taken today are in the best interests of the sport, our partners and importantly our fans. I’d like to thank our partners at the BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket New Zealand as well as the Australian and New Zealand governments for their continued support and commitment to a safe return to ICC events," he said in a press release by ICC. ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said that there was ‘clarity’ on future ICC events. “We now have absolute clarity on the future of ICC events enabling all of our Members to focus on the rescheduling of lost international and domestic cricket. We will now proceed as planned with the Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 in India and host the 2022 edition in Australia," he said in the release. “We have taken the decision to move the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup to give players from every competing nation, the best opportunity to be ready for the world’s biggest stage and there is still a global qualifier to complete to decide the final three teams," he added.