While the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been hosting the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the question of hosting the 2021 T20 World Cup in India later part of the year remains a conflict. However, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become the backup country if the COVID-19 situation doesn’t come under control.
India is fighting against the second wave of the COVID-19 where over 300,000 positive cases and more than 2000 deaths per day have been taking place for the last few weeks as well. Amidst such a tough situation, the scheduling of the mega-event like the T20 World Cup is under threat, and it could be shifted to the UAE as well. However, the report also claimed that the BCCI will hold the hosting rights even if the marquee event will move to the UAE.
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“It’s too early to say what will happen. But the contingency plan is that it would go to UAE with the hosting rights staying with BCCI,” Dhiraj Malhotra, GM, BCCI and the tournament director of the World Cup said.
Talking about the chances of hosting the World Cup in India, The BCCI official said, ”We are still hopeful that with five months left and a significant population being vaccinated, we will be in a position to host the World T20. Yes, one of the options could be curtailing the nine venues to a maximum of four or five.”
Earlier in the month, the BCCI had shared that nine venues have been decided for the 2021 men’s T20 World Cup by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Ahmedabad, Bangaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Dharamsala, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Mumbai are the venues that will host the all-important league.
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On the other hand, as per the report that an ICC team will be traveling to India to check whether the BCCI might give the example of the ongoing Indian Premier League 2021 as well. However, six venues have been hosting the entire cash-rich league whereas the last season took place in the UAE (Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai) amid the surge in positive COVID-19 as well. Notably, the cash-rich league will end on May 30 as well.
