Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ehsan Mani has recently confirmed that the upcoming mega event – ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will take place in the UAE. The marquee event is due to be played in India later this year but the decision has made owing to the coronavirus situation in the country as well.
Meanwhile, last month, the BCCI had also announced that the rest of the games of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be played in the UAE in September-October. Along with this, they also announced that they will ask for more time from the ICC before deciding anything on whether India will host the T20 World Cup or not. However, the ICC has also given them the time to take a call on it considering the present situation in the country due to COVID-19.
BCCI Secretary Jay Shah had earlier said: “And as far as the T20 World Cup is concerned, we will seek time from ICC and decide later. As of now, we are in the mind frame of holding tournaments in the safe zone and we will see how the situation is in the upcoming days. The only thing I can say for now is to seek time from ICC and decide accordingly.”
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“The ICC T20 World Cup, which was supposed to be held in India, is now going to the UAE,” Ehsan Mani was quoted as saying by thenews.com.pk. “India is forced to hold the remaining IPL 2021 matches in UAE also.”
Mani also added that PCB also had no choice but to host the rest of Pakistan Super League 2021 in UAE as well.
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“As such Pakistan had no other choice but to shift the venue of the remaining PSL matches in Abu Dhabi. We had two options, either to cancel the remaining matches or look for a possible venue during the period when we have no other international commitments. This is the best time for us and we have decided to hold it in Abu Dhabi,” he again shared. “We cannot take any risk. It is the safety and security of the players and officials that should be our top priority.”
Notably, both IPL and PSL got cancelled midway after the deadly coronavirus started affecting players and support staff inside the bio-secure bubbles. And, now both the leagues will resume the remaining games in the UAE as well. And if not India then UAE is the frontrunner to host the T20 World Cup this year as well.
