Former Australia captain Allan Border has expressed his thoughts on the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup that’s scheduled to be played in his home country. The Australian batsman commented he cannot anticipate the importance of a T20 World Cup if it will be played without any crowd.
The 7th edition of the ICC Men’s T 20 World Cup is scheduled to take place in Australia starting on 18th October. Australia just like other countries across the globe has fallen to the pandemic spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, with travel restrictions applied and everyone under lockdown, there isn’t any surety on the number of people turning up for the event if the tournament will proceed as originally planned.
ALSO READ: Shane Watson Recalls His ‘bloody knee’ Incident During 2019 IPL Finals
With the tournaments still 7 months away, the future of the tournament is still uncertain due to the pandemic outbreak of the Corona Virus across the globe. The organizers are also not completely assured with the tournament being played as er its original schedule.
Allan Border spoke with Fox Sports News saying, “I just can’t imagine playing at empty stadiums… it defies belief. Having teams, support staff and everyone else associated with the game wandering around the country, playing games of cricket, but you can’t let people into the grounds. I just can’t see it happening. It’s either you play it and everyone just gets on with the job and we’re past this pandemic. Or it just has to be canceled and you try to fit it in somewhere else.”
Australia allrounder Glenn Maxwell has also raised concern over IPL. He feels the star-studded event could still go ahead with empty stadiums, he isn’t sure of a World Cup could survive without spectators.
“If you look at the way it’s going to be set out, it’s going to be hard for us to have crowds there,” he’d told ABC Grandstand. “It’s going to be hard for us to justify having a World Cup when we can’t get people into the grounds. So I can’t see it happening in the near future.”
ALSO READ: MS Dhoni is the Greatest Of All Time, Claims Michael Hussey
Cricket Australia chief Kevin Roberts had earlier expressed his desire to see the T20 World Cup happen under normal circumstances. and as per its original schedule.
Border signed off with saying that a World Cup without fans in the stadium would just be about the television-rights revenue. “Which all sports need. Let’s face facts… as soon as we roll into the cricket season and no cricket is being played, everyone starts hurting in our games as well,” he said.
