BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla has recently said that the uncertainty due to the coronavirus situation in India forced the board to shift the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 to the United Arab Emirates from India. On Monday, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has also confirmed the news as well as their confirmation to the ICC that the mega event can be shifted to UAE as well. But, the BCCI will still be the hosts of the tournament.
“As far as T20 World Cup is concerned, today (June 28) was the deadline as we had to inform the ICC about our decision so today there was a conference call between BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, Secretary Jay Shah, Treasurer Arun Dhumal, me and the Joint Secretary,” Rajeev Shukla told news agency ANI on Monday.
He continued, “We looked at the COVID-19 situation and nobody is sure what is going to happen after two-three months, looking at everything, it has been decided that Secretary Jay Shah and President Ganguly will inform the ICC to move the tournament to the UAE.”
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Rajeev Shukla has again shared that the UAE is an ideal place after India for the tournament to be played and revealed that keeping the scale of the T20 World Cup in mind, the board took the decision as well. Meanwhile, he also added that the schedule will be the same as it is slated to begin from October 17, two days after the IPL 2021 final whereas Oman and Muscat to host the qualifying matches. On the other hand, the rest of the IPL 2021 games will take place in the UAE during the September-October window as well.
“UAE is an ideal venue after India. We all wanted to host it in India, but you know it is an international tournament and that too of big size, so it was very hard to predict what is going to happen with the COVID situation, after due consideration, now the BCCI has decided to move the T20 World Cup to the UAE,” he said.
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“The dates are going to be the same, immediately after the IPL, the tournament will start. The format for the World Cup has already been decided by the ICC, qualifiers may take place in Oman and Muscat. The rest of the matches will be in the three grounds — Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah,” Rajeev Shukla concluded.
