ICC to discuss fate of T20 World Cup in board meeting on Thursday

The procedure and timelines for electing Shashank Manohar’s successor as International Cricket Council chairman will also be formalised on Thursday.

The ICC is likely to adopt the wait and watch approach while discussing the fate of the T20 World Cup.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is likely to adopt the wait and watch approach while discussing the fate of the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be played in Australia in October-November.

With COVID-19 having thrown sports calendars in a disarray, cricket has been no exception. As a result, the fate of the marquee event - set to feature 16 teams - hangs in balance. It has led to murmurs of ICC likely to postpone the event either to 2021 or 2022 but the ICC was quick to clarify on Wednesday that it is going ahead with the preparation.

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“The ICC has not taken a decision to postpone the T20 World Cup and preparations are ongoing for the event in Australia this year as per plan. The topic is on the agenda for the ICC Board meeting on May 28 and a decision will be made in due course,” stated an ICC spokesperson.

Sportstar understands that despite a few constituents of the 18-member board pushing for rescheduling the event, the ICC is likely to wait for a while considering multiple factors. With the National Rugby League is Australia likely to get a go-ahead for limited spectators in the stands, the ICC would like to wait till the last minute before deferring the event.

Besides, the fact that ICC is set to have a new chief in the annual meeting in the next couple of months also means that the outgoing chairman Shashank Manohar would be hesitant to impose his decisions on the new regime.

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Should Cricket Australia - the host body - express its inability on Thursday to conduct the event, the ICC will have to either schedule the event in 2021 or 2022. At the moment, India is scheduled to host the next year’s T20 World Cup but is in a conflict over ICC about assuring tax benefits from the government while 2022 doesn’t have any ICC event scheduled.

Not just T20 World Cup Other important issues to be dealt with by the ICC Board on Thursday: ICC chairman election The procedure and timelines for electing Shashank Manohar’s successor as ICC chairman will be formalised on Thursday. At the moment, England’s Colin Graves and Singapore’s Imran Khawaja are contenders, with the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly being a rank outsider. Standoff with BCCI over tax issues The ICC had set a deadline of May 18 for the BCCI to obtain assurance from the central government over tax exemptions for the 2021 T20 World Cup. While the BCCI has sought extension citing the pandemic, it will be interesting to see if the ICC snatches the event away from the BCCI.