As per Earl Eddings, chairman of Cricket Australia, it is unrealistic and unlikely that organizing Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia. The tournament is scheduled to be held between 18th October to 15th November, which is being intensely deliberated by the ICC which is postponed last week to take the final decision.
Despite the tournament being deferred in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the ICC has sustained to remain positive. After the board meeting of ICC, held to take a decision on the emergency planning last week, Manu Sawhney, who is the chief executive of ICC had said that there was only a single chance to make a decision and it required to be the ‘perfect one’ which he said would be reached at after discussing with all stakeholders, starting from the broadcasters to the cricketers.
Earl Eddings, who takes part in the ICC Board felt that time was running out. Also, he focused on the fact that many of the 16 participating nations still facing the risk of COVID-19 pandemic. It was very very tough to host the tournament and said that Cricket Australia had presented several available options to the ICC Board for the big tournament to be shifted.
On Tuesday (16-06-2020), Eddings said “I participate on the ICC Board and we have discussed this. It seems like time is running out. I would say it is unrealistic and unlikely to host the tournament although it is not formally declared this year or deferred, giving permission to 16 countries to come to Australia in this situation is a heavy risk, where maximum nations are going through the COVID-19 pandemic. We are thinking about other possible options with the board.”
This is the second time, Earl Eddings has advised the ICC Board to postpone the ICC T20 World Cup. Last month, in May he sent an email to the Finance & Commercial Affairs Committee of ICC, proposing to swap hosting of the tournament to Australia and India over the next two years.
