Former Australia cricketer Michael Hussey has said that it would be difficult to play the T20 World Cup in India this year amid this COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 got postponed owing to the surge of COVID-19 cases inside the bio-bubble, including Hussey who was the batting coach of Chennai Super Kings (CSK ) and ended up being tested positive for the deadly virus. However, he has now finally returned to Australia after he returned negative as well.
“I think it’s going to be very difficult in my view to play T20 World Cup in India. We’re talking about eight teams in the IPL. I think there are probably a similar number, maybe more teams coming in from overseas for the T20 World Cup, there’d be more venues. As I said earlier, if they’re playing in different cities, that is when the risk goes up,” Michael Hussey told Fox Cricket.
“I think they’ll have to look some pretty big contingency plans, perhaps looking at the UAE or somewhere like that that could host the World T20. I think there will be a lot of cricket boards around the world that’d be pretty nervous about going back to India for a cricket tournament,” he further added.
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However, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has called for a Special General Meeting (SGM) which will take place virtually on May 29. The focus will be on the T20 World Cup later this year. While speaking to ANI, sources related to the board has said that the idea to call for the meeting where they will discuss how to host the T20 World Cup in October-November.
“The ICC will have the meeting on June 1 and before that, we will have our own meeting on May 29 to discuss the COVID-19 situation and what all measures need to be taken with an eye on the T20 World Cup which is slated to be held in India in October-November,” the source shared.
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Notably, The BCCI has named nine venues for the mega event — Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Dharamsala, and Lucknow. However, in the last Apex Council meeting, the state associations were asked to keep preparing for the event while keeping an eye on the COVID-19 pandemic.
