Staging the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia this year is “unrealistic” in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Cricket Australia (CA) chairman Earl Eddings said yesterday.
The tournament is scheduled to take place from Oct. 18 to Nov. 15 and officials have previously said they were planning for it to proceed on those dates, but with many global borders still closed due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Eddings said that was looking increasingly unlikely.
“While it hasn’t been formally called off this year, or postponed, trying to get 16 countries into Australia in the current world, where most countries are still going through COVID spiking, I think it’s unrealistic, or it’s going to be very, very difficult,” Eddings told reporters.
Cricket Australia has put forward a number of options to the International Cricket Council (ICC), Eddings said.
“The ICC are having meetings as we speak, it’s a bit of a movable feast at the moment,” he said.
Twenty20 World Cup chief executive Nick Hockley, who yesterday took over as interim Cricket Australia chief executive, said that he expected the ICC to make a decision about the tournament next month.
“We’ve got a fantastic local organizing committee who are busy preparing for every eventuality and the decision that will come,” Hockley said.
Australia has so far enjoyed success containing the coronavirus, allowing it to ease restrictions, including letting crowds of up to 10,000 into sports stadiums from next month, but strict international border restrictions remain in place and there are also limits on domestic movement between states, creating an added headache for an event where 45 matches are split between seven cities.
Eddings said India’s Test tour in December and January appears set to go ahead, with the tourists willing to undergo quarantine to enter Australia.
“We’ve had a lot of very positive chats with India, they’re very keen to tour,” he said. “Now it’s a matter of how we get over the hurdles with COVID-19 for them to come into the country.”
However, the Twenty20 World Cup, involving 15 visiting teams and support staff, presents a far greater logistical challenge.
The most likely scenario appears to be rescheduling the tournament next year, but that would depend on the status of the pandemic and finding a spot in the crowded calendar.
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