T20 WC: IPL postponement won't deter India's chances to host event, ICC monitoring COVID situation

New Delhi [India], May 5 (ANI): In what comes as a big boost for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the postponement of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League won’t have a direct bearing on India’s chances to host the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup in October-November.

Speaking to ANI, a day after the postponement of the IPL with an eye on the current COVID-19 situation in India, a board member in the know of developments said that with the ever-evolving situation around COVID-19, a 'wait and watch' policy is the best way forward.

The member went on to explain that while the absolute last point is around July, a decison can be taken earlier as well with an eye on the position of the pandemic.

“We’re monitoring the situation and wait and watch is the best description at this stage. We probably wouldn’t go much beyond July as it’s a World Cup and they can’t be pulled off in a matter of weeks!” the board member explained.

The BCCI too is confident that things will turn around in the days to come and said that the call of postponing the IPL was taken keeping in mind the current situation with regards to the second COVID-19 wave.

"We are confident that the situation will improve in the coming days and the World Cup would go ahead in India as planned. We have zeroed in on nine venues and preparations are on and considering that we have quite a few more venues across the country, we can prepare back up venues within the country itself so that we do not burden the health infrastructure for a particular state or another in the eventuality that the situation has not returned to normal by the time of the showpiece event," a BCCI official told ANI.

The BCCI Apex Council in their last meeting on April 16 informed nine venues to continue preparations to host the T20 World Cup later in the year. The venues that have been picked are Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Dharamsala, Hyderabad and Lucknow.

On Tuesday, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah told ANI that keeping an eye on the safety of all those involved in the conduct of the IPL, the BCCI and IPL Governing Council decided to postpone the league. “The BCCI and the IPL GC have unanimously decided to postpone the 2021 season till further notice. We don’t wish to compromise the safety of the players, the people involved, the employees, the groundsmen, the match officials, every single person involved,” he said. (ANI)